Shownotes
Lady Bird Johnson’s Story
How she got the name Lady Bird. [4:13] With the loss of her mom, she was sent away. [5:28] The Austin, TX college years. [7:52] Meeting Lyndon. [8:56] What a marriage proposal! [11:00] Life on the campaign trail begins. [12:39] The attack on Pearl Harbor changed Lady Bird Johnson’s role. [17:40], [22:28] Segregation – things needed to change. [26:53]Candle Flickering Moments
After WWII Lady Bird lost her purpose … but found a new one! [24:26] The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. [30:20]Business Building Insights
Look to your talents. There are many ways to get to the same result. [15:42] The Whistle Stop Train Campaign, another purpose for change in the country. [33:22] Examples of results from seeking your purpose: The Beautify America Project and Head Start. [36:30] Advice for women of today. [39:44]Rebecca’s Triology of Historical Women Episodes
021 – A Lesson in Courage and Impact – Abigail Adams 125 – A Courageous Journey to American Back in 1841 – Elizabeth Meyer 152 – Your Purpose Can Change the World – Lady Bird JohnsonContact Links
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Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 151.
Speaker:So how do you,
Speaker:when you have a purpose fulfill what you're supposed to do
Speaker:Attention gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is give to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue Mon height in honor of him March being women's history
Speaker:month. I want to take you back in time.
Speaker:We will be talking with Ladybird Johnson,
Speaker:the wife of the 36th president of the United state Lyndon
Speaker:B Johnson Ladybird Johnson's life spans the 20th century from 1912
Speaker:to 2007.
Speaker:This is a century in which the role of women changed
Speaker:dramatically. Ladybird herself said that her life was apart for which
Speaker:I never rehearsed.
Speaker:So as not to interrupt the continuity of this fabulous interview,
Speaker:I'm just going to insert here a message from our sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible.
Speaker:Thanks to the support of the ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in
Speaker:seconds. Visit the ribbon print company.com
Speaker:for more information,
Speaker:Please join me in welcoming Ladybird Johnson to be with us
Speaker:here today.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much,
Speaker:Sue. I'm so pleased to be with you today.
Speaker:I am so honored that you've taken some time to share
Speaker:with us today,
Speaker:and I want to start out our talk as I always
Speaker:do. And that is by having you share what a candle
Speaker:would look like that really resonates with you.
Speaker:And what I mean by that is if you were to
Speaker:pick a special color that would be on your candle and
Speaker:then a saying,
Speaker:or a motto or something that always drives you forward,
Speaker:what would this candle look like by color?
Speaker:And word Candle would be yellow,
Speaker:like Texas yellow star and Lord cups,
Speaker:and four nerves.
Speaker:The flowers are planted by the hundreds in the Hill country
Speaker:of Texas.
Speaker:And then there was local yellow flowers that are planted along
Speaker:the highways across the country.
Speaker:When we did a beautiful America program.
Speaker:I love that because my favorite color is yellow too.
Speaker:What would be the quote or a motto or something that
Speaker:you've used in your life that you would put on that
Speaker:yellow candle?
Speaker:I think it would be sometimes the greatest courage in the
Speaker:room is to get up and get dressed and go to
Speaker:work. Why do you say Because we women have jobs that
Speaker:a day of the moment of taking care and sometimes many
Speaker:times you have to put aside any tiredness and sadness and
Speaker:you have to just get up,
Speaker:get dressed and go to work.
Speaker:That's how we take care of.
Speaker:So don't even second.
Speaker:Guess it,
Speaker:just get moving and do your intention,
Speaker:what you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker:Exactly. You know,
Speaker:I wouldn't have thought of that from a woman from your
Speaker:day, but I think that whole statement resonates for us today
Speaker:as well.
Speaker:Well, you see,
Speaker:when I started out,
Speaker:I needed to develop my own purpose.
Speaker:I had no purpose,
Speaker:but we'll talk more about that.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:Yes, we will for sure.
Speaker:But first I want to take it from the beginning and
Speaker:I'm really curious.
Speaker:How did you get the name Ladybird?
Speaker:Well, I was born December 22nd,
Speaker:1912 in
And when I was born,
Speaker:my mammy,
Speaker:Alice turtle was the first to wash me.
Speaker:She looked into my dark eyes and she says,
Speaker:why she's is pretty decent lady bird.
Speaker:And that name stuck with me ever since.
Speaker:Aw, but wait a minute.
Speaker:I have to ask you a question.
Speaker:Did I just hear you say mammy kind of like in
Speaker:gone with the wind?
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:The world was there and much like post civil war days
Speaker:in its gentility in its hi,
Speaker:my father Thomas Jefferson Taylor had swept my mother meaningly Taylor,
Speaker:white of a fine family and Billingsley Alabama,
Speaker:instead of her in Karnack Texas only brick house moms around,
Speaker:he had a store that said dealer and everything.
Speaker:And he was in that part of the world in built
Speaker:and everything,
Speaker:including politics.
Speaker:So let's get to the role that you played because this
Speaker:is so interesting.
Speaker:And I'm sure we're going to have a lot of depth
Speaker:to this here.
Speaker:Did you have any role models to prepare you for being
Speaker:the vice president's wife?
Speaker:And then the first lady?
Speaker:Not at all.
Speaker:My mother was a tall lady of refinement.
Speaker:She walked quite a lot,
Speaker:launch Panama hats with brands.
Speaker:She went to Chicago each year to hear the opera.
Speaker:She sometimes went to bed or Creek,
Speaker:Michigan for cure.
Speaker:And then when I was six years old,
Speaker:she tripped over a small father,
Speaker:dog and failed battle,
Speaker:long flight of stairs.
Speaker:She was pregnant and miscarried food poisoning in and before I
Speaker:knew it,
Speaker:she was gone,
Speaker:Oh my,
Speaker:so it's six years old.
Speaker:Then I was gone.
Speaker:My older brothers,
Speaker:they are living in the eight years older than I,
Speaker:and they were away at school.
Speaker:So my father sent me to my mother's family,
Speaker:to my aunt and people to that.
Speaker:And if it was the most over worldly woman that I
Speaker:had ever known,
Speaker:she painted,
Speaker:she played the piano.
Speaker:She taught me all about the wild flowers and we would
Speaker:go and have imaginary visits among the Ferris who lived out
Speaker:there. But she could not teach me practical things when I
Speaker:was in school.
Speaker:Like what way or how to make friends.
Speaker:And that certainly never happened.
Speaker:I don't think I ever met a woman who actually lived
Speaker:in the 20th century until I went to college in Austin,
Speaker:Texas. And I met my first real friend.
Speaker:You junior Berenger new Jean.
Speaker:Yeah. She was like,
Speaker:Carrie's in my life.
Speaker:She taught me to look and see what my talents were.
Speaker:She encouraged me perhaps to become a journalist.
Speaker:I almost say I liked that because I learned to use
Speaker:a camera and I could go all the places you,
Speaker:you went,
Speaker:but I could stay behind my camera.
Speaker:Then I didn't really have to come out.
Speaker:And people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's because of Jean that I actually met.
Speaker:Lyndon Johnson.
Speaker:Want to hear that story?
Speaker:But I do have a question for you first.
Speaker:It seems so courageous to even go off to college in
Speaker:Texas. How did you decide that that was going to happen?
Speaker:Most women at that time didn't really go to college yet?
Speaker:No, it was decided for me.
Speaker:I remember the school in feelings really when I was 13,
Speaker:but I was too young to really go for college.
Speaker:So I was put in a
they were really kind to me and they understood that I
Speaker:had never really had a mother and they with my father
Speaker:decided that I would go to college in Austin.
Speaker:My father sent me off with a shiny black Buick.
Speaker:I was 17 years old and a charge account that Neiman
Speaker:Marcus. And while I may have looked rather sophisticated,
Speaker:I knew nothing of the world.
Speaker:I'd still say that word.
Speaker:It's pretty courageous.
Speaker:Even though you knew that that was what you were going
Speaker:to have to do to go ahead and go and then
Speaker:make your way in the world is amazing.
Speaker:So you met Eugena and then you Lyndon tell us that
Speaker:story. After college,
Speaker:I had all manner of dreams of what I might do
Speaker:as a journalism.
Speaker:Jean had encouraged me to take shorthand and typing.
Speaker:She got a job in a Congressman Greenberg's office in Austin,
Speaker:but I was still too frightened of the world.
Speaker:I went back home,
Speaker:nobody had paid any line to my father's house since my
Speaker:mother's death.
Speaker:And I decided that I would remodel it,
Speaker:which also gave me the opportunity to go to Austin often.
Speaker:And I was in Jean's office.
Speaker:When this man came in,
Speaker:he was tall and dark.
Speaker:Hadn't had more energy than any man that had ever seen
Speaker:except my father.
Speaker:And he had come there because he had a date with
Speaker:one of the girls in the office.
Speaker:He looked at me in a certain way and he looked
Speaker:at his date and they lifted.
Speaker:Jean invited us all to come out with him.
Speaker:And then he took me home life.
Speaker:Well, not really.
Speaker:He dropped me off at the hotel and he is,
Speaker:but the scan of the words and the perhaps made me
Speaker:meet him for breakfast in the hotel the next day.
Speaker:And I did,
Speaker:I had an appointment with an architect first and he waited
Speaker:for him and during the appointment,
Speaker:and then he took me for a ride and he told
Speaker:me the most amazing thing all about his family.
Speaker:And he used the ambition and his age education,
Speaker:and we spent four or five days talking.
Speaker:I decided he should meet daddy.
Speaker:And I brought him back to Khan,
Speaker:AQ, and I could see that it was quite impressed by
Speaker:this fella.
Speaker:And then Lyndon had to go back with Congressman Kleberg to
Speaker:Washington. He was also in that school there,
Speaker:but he wrote to me and he telephoned me and I
Speaker:got letters and calls every day.
Speaker:And he kept asking me to marry him.
Speaker:And I talked to my friends and they said,
Speaker:well, wait,
Speaker:you hardly know the man.
Speaker:And I went to talk to Jeannie and all that again.
Speaker:And while I was there,
Speaker:when then came forth to the hotel early in the morning,
Speaker:I'm not,
Speaker:I am not there early in the morning.
Speaker:And he had gotten his friend,
Speaker:Dan Quayle,
Speaker:who was a postmaster to arrange a marriage license and a
Speaker:rector edit and a piece of paly and church.
Speaker:And for that afternoon he said,
Speaker:take her away.
Speaker:But So he really took control.
Speaker:How did you feel about that?
Speaker:I suppose I was used to man taken control and I
Speaker:was smitten with this towel bundle of energy.
Speaker:I, Paul Jean and a few other friends.
Speaker:They met us at the church and I had a reading
Speaker:from the Sears and Roebuck across the street.
Speaker:I've never been good to see the marriage license for me
Speaker:is I was afraid we were not legally married.
Speaker:I think it wasn't until our 20th anniversary,
Speaker:then you're spraying produce it for me.
Speaker:There I was a wife who had never cooked a meal
Speaker:with her life or higher two rings a finger for anybody
Speaker:mother sale.
Speaker:Well, it was clearly the right decision because you stayed married
Speaker:for quite a while,
Speaker:but how did you stay married to that bundle of energy?
Speaker:That was Linden?
Speaker:Well, Linden decided that he would run for Congress.
Speaker:I borrowed against my inheritance to help him.
Speaker:And some other people pitched in and now I was given
Speaker:things to do on the campaign trail.
Speaker:And I was given a purpose.
Speaker:My purpose was to keep my husband's shirts pressed and to
Speaker:talk to people and stand up and address crowd.
Speaker:I was good at the first.
Speaker:I learned how to do that,
Speaker:but I was not so good at the second,
Speaker:but I had a purpose.
Speaker:So how do you,
Speaker:when you have a purpose fulfill what you're supposed to do
Speaker:now, Landon had always said that it really was not important
Speaker:for you to know exactly how you were going to accomplish
Speaker:what you set out to do.
Speaker:You simply have to look inside yourself and see what your
Speaker:talents are and then use them to the best of your
Speaker:ability to get,
Speaker:to fulfill the purpose you had set out to come to
Speaker:you. Wow.
Speaker:That is a really interesting point because just as women of
Speaker:today, you're really not successful.
Speaker:Unless you drive to a certain goal,
Speaker:you have some type of vision.
Speaker:And I think what I'm hearing you say,
Speaker:lady bird is you weren't necessarily sure how you were going
Speaker:to get there,
Speaker:but you knew what the purpose was.
Speaker:Yes. So that was the whole thing to know what the
Speaker:purpose is.
Speaker:So if the purpose was to get boots,
Speaker:I decided I could take my car,
Speaker:my little black Buick and drive a town ahead or two
Speaker:where Lyndon was going to come through and I would stop.
Speaker:And I would get one gallon of gas.
Speaker:Now, in those days,
Speaker:when you got gas,
Speaker:they wash your windshield,
Speaker:checked the pressure in your tires,
Speaker:they check your oil while they were doing that.
Speaker:I would speak to the man,
Speaker:cause they're always man,
Speaker:sit from the gas station,
Speaker:tell him who I was,
Speaker:who Landon was hand for literature,
Speaker:give them all a big Tam devote fully and then,
Speaker:and drive out to the next gas station.
Speaker:I'm always better at that time talking to one or two
Speaker:people, then the dozens or hundreds I was asked to.
Speaker:And that's how I fulfilled my purpose and have landed.
Speaker:And I got to Washington.
Speaker:So did you already have this strategy when you set off
Speaker:or did it evolve as you stopped for gas and you
Speaker:saw an opportunity and said,
Speaker:Hey, I'm going to spread the word.
Speaker:And then it became a plan.
Speaker:Then that was your strategy,
Speaker:your campaign plan,
Speaker:Where it started,
Speaker:because I could not fulfill the purpose of speaking to the
Speaker:group, too many people.
Speaker:So it was a different way to get the same results.
Speaker:Exactly. There are often many ways and I have learned that
Speaker:over my lifetime.
Speaker:Sometimes the world tells you Madam,
Speaker:that tactic is not going to work.
Speaker:So you look to your talents.
Speaker:Well, what are my talents and how can I use them
Speaker:to do this differently?
Speaker:When we got to Washington,
Speaker:for instance,
Speaker:a congressman's wife was posed to have a lot of teams
Speaker:with all the congressmen wives,
Speaker:with the senators wives,
Speaker:with the wives of the diplomatic Corps,
Speaker:it was driving me mad.
Speaker:I am change.
Speaker:But then I saw that in politics,
Speaker:constituents come,
Speaker:first constituents is spelled all in capital letters.
Speaker:So what did constituents need?
Speaker:When they came to Washington,
Speaker:they needed a host to take them to learn and order
Speaker:the Lincoln Memorial,
Speaker:all the cherry trees and lots of things that I love
Speaker:and that I had a tailor to learn about.
Speaker:And so in that wing map purpose in being a representative,
Speaker:why was to help his career and keep his constituents,
Speaker:appreciating him.
Speaker:And if I could show our appreciation for them,
Speaker:by taking them around,
Speaker:I met so many wonderful people.
Speaker:I learned so many wonderful things.
Speaker:It was my way of getting to the purpose by using
Speaker:my talents.
Speaker:We're so smart because you used what naturally you felt comfortable
Speaker:with and your skills and not everyone has that skill of
Speaker:being a hostess and the social one-on-one and touring and all
Speaker:of that.
Speaker:So that was brilliant lady bird,
Speaker:But I didn't know it was brilliant.
Speaker:I didn't know that anybody else could use it.
Speaker:Quill really had to take a deep breath was after Pearl
Speaker:Harbor, Landon like many other congressmen and enlisted.
Speaker:Right. And I knew that I was chosen to be continuity
Speaker:in his office.
Speaker:I did have some money.
Speaker:Hey, and I could write a good letter.
Speaker:I don't think anybody expected much more me than that.
Speaker:That's what women do.
Speaker:Just wouldn't gene had done back in Austin,
Speaker:but I assume so that there were things that were not
Speaker:being done constituents.
Speaker:We're going to suffer for it.
Speaker:People would write and the mother would want to know what
Speaker:her stainless son was.
Speaker:And a farmer was upset.
Speaker:Cause he was,
Speaker:I'm afraid that the rural electrification project wouldn't be go ahead
Speaker:because of the war,
Speaker:people needed rooms.
Speaker:And they needed to know things about where taxes were going
Speaker:to help their particular part of our congressional district.
Speaker:And so I had to move into a whole new set
Speaker:of skills because my purpose was to be continuity.
Speaker:My purpose was to have things ruined as well in smoothly.
Speaker:And for the benefit of our constituents,
Speaker:is it Landon was there himself.
Speaker:Women were strong and powerful as wives at this time and
Speaker:not particularly in their own.
Speaker:And the amazing thing that happened is that I found that
Speaker:I could do this.
Speaker:I saw it for the first time that I could actually,
Speaker:if a woman to earn my own living,
Speaker:I could live my own life.
Speaker:I could leave,
Speaker:Oh, the people to do what they had to do.
Speaker:I certainly did so problems wrong way.
Speaker:I could never use Linden's method.
Speaker:And if I was a squeaking wheel,
Speaker:I was a wheel that squeaked very politely.
Speaker:And that is a very good thing.
Speaker:And for your self esteem,
Speaker:when you understand that you might have a place in the
Speaker:world. Now I have to tell you at this time I
Speaker:still didn't have any children.
Speaker:I had four miscarriages and a tubular pregnancy,
Speaker:but I was having a tremendously exciting vital life.
Speaker:And that is good to know that you yourself,
Speaker:beside from a man,
Speaker:Hey capabilities.
Speaker:I found that out rather than to my amazement purpose,
Speaker:defined by being Lyndon Johnson's wife for a lot of beliefs.
Speaker:So at that time,
Speaker:not so unusual for other women at that time.
Speaker:That's what I saw around me.
Speaker:But I must tell you that it was about to change
Speaker:for me and for other women.
Speaker:You see who hope I happened,
Speaker:world war CIMA started and Leander like many other congressmen.
Speaker:Like many of the American man just went and volunteered for
Speaker:the army and left their jobs.
Speaker:And Linden left me the job to be the continuity in
Speaker:his office.
Speaker:Now a handsome show of hand.
Speaker:And I had typing and I could write a good letter.
Speaker:That's what women did in man's offices.
Speaker:But I soon found that things were not being done to
Speaker:help our constituents like,
Speaker:Oh, a woman would write to us and frantically asking where
Speaker:her stainless son was on a farm or would ask,
Speaker:would he electrification of his farm be delayed because of the
Speaker:war. People needed to know that there was still tax money
Speaker:coming their way for rooms and water,
Speaker:other projects.
Speaker:And I knew all of Brandon's brands,
Speaker:all his network.
Speaker:And I knew how to pick up a telephone or vote
Speaker:about offices and talk to them.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:a Habs,
Speaker:I was a squeak in whale,
Speaker:but I was a squeaky wheel my way.
Speaker:I could never do it the way Liam did.
Speaker:And so we got things done.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you don't come across to me as having that bravado.
Speaker:Did you just feel like you had no choice,
Speaker:but to step up?
Speaker:So you just did it.
Speaker:Yes. My purpose was to make the office continue the way
Speaker:it had when Landon was there and that meant doing things
Speaker:for our constituents.
Speaker:And I found as I did it that I really could
Speaker:do it.
Speaker:It was,
Speaker:as Lyndon said,
Speaker:I didn't know when I started out exactly how I was
Speaker:going to accomplish my purpose.
Speaker:And I started with the parents I had and I went
Speaker:on and I realized if it was ever necessary,
Speaker:I could make my own living.
Speaker:And that's a good feeling to hire.
Speaker:That's very good for you and for your self esteem and
Speaker:for your place in the world,
Speaker:You share a good message for all of us here.
Speaker:And that is in the beginning.
Speaker:You might have questioned,
Speaker:but you did anyway.
Speaker:And then the success of having done that led to more
Speaker:confidence, which in turn led to a higher level of doing
Speaker:and it just kept progressing from there.
Speaker:Well, yes,
Speaker:and it was so important to me to see that things
Speaker:were being done.
Speaker:Our newspaper in our districts said that instead of reelecting,
Speaker:Landon to Congress in absentia,
Speaker:they should call a convention and nominate Mrs.
Speaker:Bending. Wow.
Speaker:It was wonderful because I didn't have any home-based like other
Speaker:women did.
Speaker:I had had four miscarriages at a tubular pregnancy during the
Speaker:years of our marriage,
Speaker:but I realized I by myself had tremendously excited by life
Speaker:and I didn't have to have any home base so to
Speaker:speak. And it's good to know that you yourself was that
Speaker:from a man.
Speaker:So capabilities.
Speaker:I found that to my amazement.
Speaker:Right. And so how Did things carry on from there?
Speaker:Well, Linden came home and he thanked me profusely and profoundly
Speaker:and then told me I didn't have to go down to
Speaker:the office,
Speaker:the NMO,
Speaker:but now you loved what you were doing.
Speaker:Yeah. And it was not available to me anymore.
Speaker:I had lost my purpose.
Speaker:And so I decided that I would use my experience in
Speaker:one, to be a journalist.
Speaker:And I would find a newspaper in Austin,
Speaker:Texas. And instead I found a radio station and I went
Speaker:down to Austin and this radio station had own corrected bills
Speaker:and advertisers who never paid.
Speaker:And I used from knowledge.
Speaker:Then my uncle Claude,
Speaker:the cello had given me about finance and how you had
Speaker:to collect your receivables,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:to pay for your bills.
Speaker:I put that radio station into a position where I was
Speaker:actually making money,
Speaker:but Linden for me to come home.
Speaker:Now I had a choice to make,
Speaker:did I stay in Austin or did I go home to
Speaker:this man?
Speaker:And I decided I really loved me.
Speaker:And he told me more dreams that he would have about
Speaker:becoming a Senator.
Speaker:And I had to find a new purpose as it happened.
Speaker:I got pregnant,
Speaker:I got pregnant twice.
Speaker:I had my beautiful daughters and I found that while I
Speaker:was home,
Speaker:I could still build more radio stations and television was permanent.
Speaker:And I could manage my stations and my television stations and
Speaker:my family at the same time.
Speaker:And it was wonderful.
Speaker:So that became my purpose.
Speaker:And I used all my talent to do that.
Speaker:But now you did become one of the great women in
Speaker:politics. Well,
Speaker:in 1955,
Speaker:Landon had a big purpose.
Speaker:He saw that the South could not continue segregated.
Speaker:He saw that Bob being segregated businesses would not come to
Speaker:the South.
Speaker:That population was leaving and go and know that the South
Speaker:was becoming the same kind of program.
Speaker:It had been before the civil war.
Speaker:And he started to change that.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:he had tremendous resistance,
Speaker:so much resistance that he had a heart attack and the
Speaker:called me and I rushed to the hospital and you know,
Speaker:to see someone not in their own,
Speaker:right. And I thought I might lose him.
Speaker:And I decided at that time they needed my care.
Speaker:He needed my attention and that I was willing to make
Speaker:my purpose to achieve and Hughes purpose.
Speaker:You know that in 1957,
Speaker:Linden spent 32 things on a court in the Congress trying
Speaker:to get the equal education has.
Speaker:And I brought him meals and I brought him clean clothes.
Speaker:And then of course,
Speaker:shortly after that,
Speaker:he was chosen randomly for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Speaker:And I met those Kennedy women.
Speaker:I was in some tall call.
Speaker:And for the first time I did what I had never
Speaker:done. I joined the Capitol speakers club.
Speaker:I was in my late forties.
Speaker:And I took lessons in how to give us things,
Speaker:how to Olga,
Speaker:how to pace your delivery,
Speaker:how to wait for applause and laughter.
Speaker:And we hit the campaign trail.
Speaker:We certainly did that.
Speaker:We won that election.
Speaker:And what a proud time that was I'm sure.
Speaker:Yes, of course it's certainly worth,
Speaker:I was so proud of playing them and where we had
Speaker:come. And I will tell you that we went all around
Speaker:the world and we would be signing guests books.
Speaker:And in front of me would be people from other countries.
Speaker:A woman would be signing lady this and lady that,
Speaker:and I must tell you,
Speaker:I felt at all,
Speaker:it's fine.
Speaker:And lady bird,
Speaker:But that's what you were known as.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's what I was known as I could never lose lady.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:And I love the progression of your life story because you
Speaker:continued to look for more surmountable things,
Speaker:more things that challenged you,
Speaker:that you could overcome.
Speaker:It started from the beginning,
Speaker:just having a purpose in the place and then building your
Speaker:confidence as you took over and then going through the election
Speaker:and then the radio stations and all of that.
Speaker:And your whole life was just building on top of itself
Speaker:and giving you more and more confidence.
Speaker:And I'm quite sure more and more pride,
Speaker:which then allowed you,
Speaker:when you decided you wanted to switch your purpose to support
Speaker:your husband and the campaign.
Speaker:You were even a stronger woman at that point.
Speaker:Well thank you for saying that,
Speaker:Susan, but it is,
Speaker:you can't stay at home in bed.
Speaker:You got to get dressed and go to work.
Speaker:This sounds great,
Speaker:but I don't think we can overlook the assassination.
Speaker:Yeah. The day had started her up.
Speaker:So there was sunshine and the streets were lined with people,
Speaker:families, children,
Speaker:with flags and FICA.
Speaker:And then suddenly they went and Linden secret service man came
Speaker:over the back of the car.
Speaker:He shoved me to the floor and put his body across
Speaker:the landing and I could barely breathe.
Speaker:And then we would go on fast.
Speaker:So very,
Speaker:very fast.
Speaker:And then we stopped suddenly in the hustle Vivian side.
Speaker:And I knew that we were in a hospital and Lyndon
Speaker:said, go find Jackie and Millie Connolly.
Speaker:The husbands have been shot.
Speaker:So I want to be long what corridors until I found
Speaker:Jackie outside operating room,
Speaker:she was quite alone.
Speaker:She looked like a right,
Speaker:as you might expect that I hold her.
Speaker:And then when I stepped back,
Speaker:I saw that her pink suit was to prove it in
Speaker:her husband's blood had gloves and one leg.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:I want them to see what they have done.
Speaker:You've seen pictures of me on the airplane standing next to
Speaker:Linden when he has taken the oath of all.
Speaker:But I am not there.
Speaker:I have retreated to someplace where none of this is happening.
Speaker:It is quiet.
Speaker:And I am by myself instead of surrounded by people in
Speaker:morning, it was a place I went to after my mom
Speaker:or dad,
Speaker:but I couldn't stay there there,
Speaker:no, because there were changes that had to be made and
Speaker:they would changes of a domestic.
Speaker:So housing children,
Speaker:decorations for Christmas had to come down and morning had to
Speaker:go up and we had to move and the Kennedy's and
Speaker:Mrs. Kennedy and her children that was all needed for retention.
Speaker:You could not stay in bed.
Speaker:You had to get up,
Speaker:get dressed and go to work.
Speaker:And then in a very short time,
Speaker:Linda had to decide if was going to ruin for president
Speaker:again. And he asked me after this mass sale to help
Speaker:him room for president.
Speaker:And I wrote him,
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:beloved, you are as brave a man as Harry Truman or
Speaker:FPR Lincoln,
Speaker:you can go on to finish some peace and some achievement
Speaker:amidst all the pain.
Speaker:You are strong patient determined beyond words of mind to experience
Speaker:and a awning for just spit out now would be wrong
Speaker:for your country.
Speaker:And so I joined him in that struggle and I found
Speaker:in that purpose,
Speaker:something I had never,
Speaker:ever found before.
Speaker:And what was that?
Speaker:I decided I would have a whistle stop campaign.
Speaker:Harry Truman had done it in the forties.
Speaker:The train would leave Washington DC,
Speaker:go through the South and come back.
Speaker:And we would stop at small towns and bring our message
Speaker:of change in the country of bringing peace of integrating everybody.
Speaker:But the men would not really get a port.
Speaker:The lady bird special sensitive was suddenly too busy.
Speaker:Congressman couldn't see me now the most wonderful press secretary name
Speaker:is Results carpenter.
Speaker:And Liz was just a bundle of energy.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:no lady,
Speaker:but if the man won't help us,
Speaker:the women would do it.
Speaker:And for the first time I had a team,
Speaker:I had a team with live.
Speaker:I had a team with Kennedy.
Speaker:I had a team working with me and Kayla breezy,
Speaker:Marjorie, Megan,
Speaker:the mayor,
Speaker:Senator Byrd,
Speaker:wouldn't come on a train,
Speaker:but don't order it.
Speaker:And I found that,
Speaker:wow, the mayor of a small town or the sheriff or
Speaker:commissioner of a County,
Speaker:wasn't so willing to come forward with their wives were they
Speaker:came from God and clubs and church groups.
Speaker:And so in circle,
Speaker:we started out on the Ladybird special.
Speaker:I remember we got to one pound at six in the
Speaker:morning and a woman came up on the back car where
Speaker:I was standing and shook my hand.
Speaker:She said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I go there at two o'clock in the morning to milk
Speaker:all my cows and do my chores.
Speaker:So I could come here with her.
Speaker:And I knew that I was the closest she would ever
Speaker:come to her government,
Speaker:but she considered herself an American,
Speaker:a citizen.
Speaker:She proud to be the heart of this whole democracy.
Speaker:And that women had to realize that and join in that.
Speaker:And they were ready,
Speaker:women and able to do that.
Speaker:Everything, those four days are most proud of the most fulfilling,
Speaker:the most wonderful days of my who Just as you were
Speaker:talking about the change in you,
Speaker:when you found your purpose,
Speaker:that's exactly what you were doing for all of those women
Speaker:too. Yeah.
Speaker:I tried.
Speaker:I had to find something to do now,
Speaker:Jackie Kennedy,
Speaker:if say that they're hot.
Speaker:Oh, with being the woman to redo the white house,
Speaker:the people's house,
Speaker:but they're what were my family.
Speaker:My parents were no one about why I flopped and Effie
Speaker:came forward and me.
Speaker:And so we started the beautified America project and then Brendan
Speaker:has the war on poverty.
Speaker:And that started headstock and March tomorrow,
Speaker:consternation that the rural schools where the children were going,
Speaker:will be in straightened by men with guns and bombs.
Speaker:And so I went there when to say,
Speaker:Hey, these are all,
Speaker:Oh, I have children.
Speaker:And we have to think them.
Speaker:And we have to educate them,
Speaker:come on women.
Speaker:The men can't come forward with their guns.
Speaker:And they'll bomb.
Speaker:You tell them who is in charge of these children.
Speaker:Women came out and they did that.
Speaker:And they would form a ring circle around school where I
Speaker:was visiting.
Speaker:And I must tell you,
Speaker:there were many times when a faith for the womb meant
Speaker:the face of a man and he took two steps back.
Speaker:Wow. That was courageous.
Speaker:The hardest part of that though,
Speaker:thanks to faith and meeting civility came during the Vietnam war.
Speaker:It was eaten Landon alive.
Speaker:If we win even outside the planet have,
Speaker:Hey, Hey,
Speaker:it'll be J harmony.
Speaker:It was off.
Speaker:It was terrible.
Speaker:And I saw that he was shrink.
Speaker:He was dying bad bit.
Speaker:And so in March,
Speaker:not teen six to eight,
Speaker:I wrote into a speech that he was about to give,
Speaker:will not see no,
Speaker:will I expect the nomination of my party or president of
Speaker:the United States.
Speaker:I didn't know what he was on.
Speaker:The speech began on television.
Speaker:And sure.
Speaker:I know that's what he's saying.
Speaker:And I just praying that we could make it through almost
Speaker:a moving here because you see,
Speaker:I found the wheelchair that Woodrow Wilson had used after he'd
Speaker:had a stroke in office.
Speaker:I knew that Linden could never do that and I couldn't
Speaker:do it either.
Speaker:And we can't have the day and we could read the
Speaker:why it happened and go back to the Hill country of
Speaker:Texas. That's what we did.
Speaker:And as you reflect back on that time,
Speaker:what would you say about all of that?
Speaker:The courage and the challenge and the horrors that you saw,
Speaker:but also the significant changes you made in the impact on
Speaker:the world.
Speaker:What would you say with all your wisdom to women of
Speaker:today? Women have more power today.
Speaker:Women have more team,
Speaker:more other women to spring.
Speaker:And with more men who are willing to accept a woman,
Speaker:not just a member of a team,
Speaker:but a woman,
Speaker:a leader of the team.
Speaker:And so you must get up,
Speaker:get dressed and get to work to a purpose in what
Speaker:you need to do and your talents and your team.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:moving. When I started out that real Linden,
Speaker:we would achieve the civil rights act of 64,
Speaker:the voting rights act of 65,
Speaker:the open house in the acts of 68,
Speaker:60 separate bills,
Speaker:making the federal government active partner in education,
Speaker:the war on poverty with four separate programs,
Speaker:including headstart,
Speaker:Medicare, and the job Corps,
Speaker:the national endowment for the arts,
Speaker:the national endowment for the humanities,
Speaker:you clean air and water standards,
Speaker:increase Parkland speed thing per se,
Speaker:and got a nuclear nonproliferation treaty signed and salt talks scheduled.
Speaker:And just do that because that's your purpose.
Speaker:It's humbling to hear you list all of the accomplishments and
Speaker:who talk about having to your purpose through life.
Speaker:And it isn't easy,
Speaker:but look at,
Speaker:by standing up,
Speaker:getting out of bed every day,
Speaker:like you're saying all that was able to be accomplished.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So, so things that you allowed me this opportunity to tell
Speaker:this story and to tell women of America,
Speaker:ham, or China,
Speaker:and how I pray that they create that purpose for them
Speaker:sale and fulfill it as Wyatt.
Speaker:Thank you so very much for spending your time with us
Speaker:lady, bird Johnson.
Speaker:I so appreciate it.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So you have just heard about the life of lady bird
Speaker:Johnson enacted by Rebecca Bloomfield.
Speaker:Rebecca has a passion for portraying the lives of famous women
Speaker:in American history.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:Rebecca, I believe you've actually met Ladybird Johnson.
Speaker:Yes I did.
Speaker:So I was portraying Abigail Adams and was asked to do
Speaker:that at the Lyndon Johnson library.
Speaker:And Mrs.
Speaker:Johnson invited me to have dinner with her.
Speaker:I thought it was like a friends of the library and
Speaker:there'd be hundreds of people there,
Speaker:but there were only 16 people there,
Speaker:lady bird Linda's speech writer who was now head of the
Speaker:library lives carpenter for press secretary.
Speaker:Was there one of the Rob granddaughters and her fiance and
Speaker:two congressmen and their wives who had known lindens since 38.
Speaker:And they told stories about her that even the granddaughter didn't
Speaker:know about her courage and how remarkable the woman she was.
Speaker:And then I got access to the library to create this
Speaker:presentation. So you had done the presentation about Abigail and they
Speaker:saw it and then you got invited to dinner that had
Speaker:to be incredible.
Speaker:Did she have any idea or did you know at the
Speaker:time that you'd be doing the same thing for lady bird?
Speaker:No. I had to ask permission and I did,
Speaker:and then I got access to it.
Speaker:Very interesting.
Speaker:When I created Abigail,
Speaker:they were directly from her letters and her words and her
Speaker:thoughts and her feelings,
Speaker:but much of the news reporting and what was available superficially
Speaker:about lady bird was managed news.
Speaker:And often at one of these headstart openings,
Speaker:it would tell about the flowers they gave her or who
Speaker:baked the cake,
Speaker:but not about what was going on outside.
Speaker:And fortunately the library had news reports and we're audio taping.
Speaker:People's recollections of lady bird and the Johnson.
Speaker:And I got to hear from them how they interacted with
Speaker:her and what she gave to them,
Speaker:What an enriching and rewarding thing to do.
Speaker:It had to be so interesting to uncover all of that
Speaker:and then to be able to relay it to all of
Speaker:us, because I'll tell you interviewing lady bird.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I felt like I really was going back gift biz listeners.
Speaker:This is the third time Rebecca has been on the gift
Speaker:biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:She has done her portrayal of Abigail Adams that was back
Speaker:in episode 21.
Speaker:And we also did a wonderful woman named Elizabeth Meyer who
Speaker:came over to America from Switzerland.
Speaker:So we learned all about her journey and the life of
Speaker:someone who decides that they're going to leave and go to
Speaker:an unknown land that we now inhabit.
Speaker:Both of those are going to be on the show notes
Speaker:page. Along with this Rebecca,
Speaker:we've made kind of a little triad of historical stories.
Speaker:Now I thank you so much for that.
Speaker:It's wonderful.
Speaker:Thank you for the afternoon.
Speaker:I'd love for you to share with us right now.
Speaker:What else you do with your life?
Speaker:Talk a little bit about your professional career.
Speaker:Well, I get to work with a lot of women because
Speaker:of my husband,
Speaker:Jerry Perlstein.
Speaker:I have a unique agency that offers health life long-term care,
Speaker:disability and retirement programs to people who are independent entrepreneurs,
Speaker:sole practitioners,
Speaker:artists, and I have a particular passion that every woman should
Speaker:have her own long-term care insurance life and long-term care insurance.
Speaker:And so I go out among women,
Speaker:seeing what they do,
Speaker:seeing how we can keep them safe and give them the
Speaker:cash they need for a long and wonderful life.
Speaker:Someone wanted to know more about you from that angle,
Speaker:where should they go?
Speaker:They can go to our website,
Speaker:J Pearlstein ltd.com.
Speaker:They can email me our bloomfield@jpearlsteinltp.com.
Speaker:And I'd be happy to talk about how a woman gets
Speaker:her purpose and keeps it going.
Speaker:Go, thank you so much.
Speaker:I think this was so important because I love the part
Speaker:of lady bird story,
Speaker:where she discovered that she needed a purpose in the first
Speaker:place. And then she kept defining it and revising it as
Speaker:things happened in her life.
Speaker:But she always still seemed to have that beacon of purpose.
Speaker:And that's what drove her the whole way.
Speaker:It's a great message for us gift biz listeners.
Speaker:I challenge you to think and to really be able to
Speaker:very concretely define what is your purpose,
Speaker:because we can all accomplish great things here.
Speaker:And Rebecca,
Speaker:you have accomplished great things in portraying these women.
Speaker:We know them in a whole different way now than we
Speaker:might have by reading a little story here or there.
Speaker:You've really brought for sure lady bird,
Speaker:as well as the others to life for us.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:That's my purpose.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Thank you once again,
Speaker:Rebecca Bye-bye thank you.
Speaker:This episode is all wrapped up,
Speaker:but fortunately,
Speaker:your gift biz journey continues.
Speaker:Are you eager to learn more?
Speaker:Our gift biz gal has a free download just for you.
Speaker:Head over to gift biz on wrapped.com/twelve
Speaker:steps to get your copy of the 12 steps to starting
Speaker:a profitable gift biz don't delay head over to gift biz
Speaker:on wrapped.com/twelve
Speaker:steps today.
