[Lady Bird Johnson]: “There was nobody that he respected more than my mother. He thought she was just about perfect.”

“You feel at peace when you're around her, and she's so optimistic in her vision of the world.”

“She truly loves our land. She loves nature. She loves this country."

"They complimented each other. She was soft, gentle. He was bombastic and impromptu. It made a wonderful combination for public life."

"I admire the woman greatly. I watched her change over the years. I watched her become a very sophisticated woman. But she never lost that down-to-earth quality that makes Lady Bird, Lady Bird."

[Narrator]: They met for breakfast in the coffee shop of the Driskill Hotel in 1934. He was 26 and secretary to a congressman. She was 21. Though it was their first date, Lyndon Johnson asked Claudia Taylor to marry him. She thought he was crazy, but two months later, after a whirlwind courtship, she agreed. They honeymooned in Mexico and would spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife and partners.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "He had more faith in me than I do in me, and in the course of it, he often made me very mad, but he also made me a more effective human being."

[Narrator]: When she married Lyndon Johnson, she married politics. He was a "New Deal Democrat," a man of the people and National Youth administrator for the state of Texas. In 1937, Congressman Lyndon Johnson and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. For Christmas, he gave her a movie camera, a wonderful present for a woman with an eye on history in the making. Lyndon Johnson ran for the Senate in 1941, and Lady Bird was there with her movie camera. Though he lost the Senate election, he remained the congressman from the 10th District of Texas. And she was always there, behind the scenes, and at his side. Who was she? Her nurse aid called her "Lady Bird." A child of Alabama and East Texas. A child of nature. Serious, shy, independent, and smart. When she graduated from college, she had two degrees: one in history, another in journalism.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "And a minor in philosophy, which I never regretted because it gave me a sort of a 'long view' of what humankind has thought and valued through the centuries."

[Narrator]: After Pearl Harbor, Lyndon Johnson volunteered for Navy duty in the South Pacific. His wife ran the Congressional office at home.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "This happened to so many people in the war, particularly I think, to women. You were made to carry a load that maybe you thought you couldn't, but you stretched, and you tried, and maybe you succeeded. Lyndon just made me do that."

[Narrator]: In 1943, with money inherited from her mother, the Johnsons bought a radio station in Texas. It would prove a smart investment in a business with a bright future, and Lyndon Johnson was confident that his wife would make a great businesswoman.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "Now that was ridiculous. I wasn't that smart. But he would say something like this: 'You mean you've got two degrees from the University of Texas, and you don't know how to start something?'"

"She certainly was a pioneer in going into a complete wilderness without experience, but she's a fast learner. She asks questions. She seeks advice, and she was pretty soon a good trail driver."

[Narrator]: After the war, life with Lyndon meant life in Washington as the wife of a senator and mother of two daughters: Lynda and Luci. In 1955, Lyndon Johnson became the majority leader of the Senate. His star was rising fast. Life for the Johnsons in the '50s also meant a life divided between Washington and Texas. In 1951, the Johnsons bought a house from Lyndon's aunt on the banks of the Pedernales River.

[Lyndon Nugent]: "The ranch itself has been in our family's possession for almost 100 years now. So, I think the Hill Country was always his place to come back home. It's where his heart was. It's really where both of their hearts were."

[Laurance Rockefeller]: "I think it's important to remember how rooted they were in their love of the land, and the love of the Hill Country, and the family. Everything was there within them. So they came as well-prepared spokespeople for the American people to recognize that all people needed the land, the spirit, all of it."

[Narrator]: Lyndon Johnson wanted to be president and was disappointed when the Democrats chose another candidate in 1960. But when asked to be vice president, he accepted.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "It all began so beautifully, one last happy moment.

[Narrator]: 'I feel like I am suddenly on stage for a part I never rehearsed,' she told a friend." Though the country was still numb from the tragedy, "It was time to get the wheels of life rolling again," the First Lady told her diary. She could not do the job alone. To be effective, the First Lady depended on the help of Bess Abel, who became her social secretary at the White House, and Liz Carpenter, the first press secretary ever to serve a first lady. Together, they formed an unbeatable team.

[Liz Carpenter]: "Lady Bird was a dream boss. She never raised her voice. She never expressed disapproval. She made you want to do your best and she was willing to go all the way, walking hand-in-hand till the last person left the White House."

[Bess Abel]: "We had that kind of sisterly trust, and I think we did a good job. I think we did a good job for the house and for the people and for the country."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "I was so lucky in having both Liz and Bess, who enlarged the usefulness of the first lady's office and job."

Lynda Johnson Robb: "It was hard to drag her away from her couch where she was dictating, or her desk where she was signing things. She was always very active and busy. And I would sometimes kidnap her, so to speak, and take her to a show at the National Gallery or something. I think she could allow herself to do that because she could justify it that she was doing something for me."

Luci Baines Johnson: "While there was never any doubt that both of our parents adored each other and adored us, there was also never any doubt that my mother and father were married to public service."

[Narrator]: In the fall of 1964, Lady Bird Johnson joined her husband's reelection campaign for a whistle-stop train ride through the South. Lyndon Johnson believed that passage of civil rights legislation was the most important accomplishment of his brief presidency. But it had not made him popular in the South. The train was called "The Lady Bird Special." She called it a journey of the heart.

[Luci Baines Johnson]: "My mother, a daughter of the South, one who loved the South, went back to Alabama where she'd spent all of her childhood and faced tomatoes, hissing, and all kinds of derogatory comments."

[Lynda Johnson Robb]: "I think she reached out to the South and said, 'We love you, but it's important for the country and for everybody and for the South to be liberated from this grip of segregation. We must give everybody the opportunity to live up to the best that God gave them.'"

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "I love the South, and I knew that it was going to be a hard job to make them swallow Lyndon's programs of Civil Rights. Because it went against the grain of generations of history. On the other hand, I felt it was the right thing to do, and Lyndon said, 'I believe if I put in all my chips, we might be able to do it.'"

[Narrator]: Elected in his own right, Lyndon Johnson now began to speak of the Great Society—fulfilling the promise of America for all Americans. In Appalachia and in America's cities, it would be known as the "war on poverty."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "We're trying to rescue the next generation to throw a lifeline to families who are lost in a sea of too little of everything and perhaps most of all, too little hope."

[Narrator]: For Lady Bird, it meant Head Start.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "Head Start addressed some of the health problems. Could the child see well enough? Deafness perhaps. To give these youngsters a preparation for starting into what you hoped would be the great pleasures of learning."

[Narrator]: As first lady, she brought professional women into the White House for what became known as "doers lunches." It was paying attention, much in the manner Eleanor Roosevelt did, to the women who were active in the causes of their country.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "We must involve ourselves. Commit ourselves as individual citizens and then move decisively."

[Narrator]: People will always remember Lady Bird Johnson best for her efforts to beautify America.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "Well, one of the fires in my life is just a considerable admiration and love of this country, and I looked at our national capital, and it sure needed some color. And so we set about, 'What can we do? We can plant in the circles and squares and in the neighborhoods and parks everywhere.'"

[Narrator]: "And we boarded buses at the White House. We drove to the mall and Mrs. Johnson got down on her hands and knees and planted pansies."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "And we hoped that it would have a ripple effect throughout the country. We worked in the neighborhoods and the schools, and we spent a good deal of money on rat-infested areas. A jump from beautification, but it's cleaned up, and that's a big part of beautification."

[Narrator]: "What she hoped to accomplish, I think more than anything, perhaps, was to set a standard for the nation. Hoping that whatever she achieved in the nation's capital would be reflected throughout the country."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "All over the country, there is an awakening to the preservation of nature's endowments. All I can say is, this is America the Beautiful. Thank you. I am a natural born tourist, an adventurer, and I've had a long love affair with nature. So, I nominated myself as interpreter."

[Stewart Udall]: "She was such a wonderful person to travel with because she wasn't fussy, and she wasn't demanding. She accepted whatever the conditions were. Those river trips were a lot of fun, but I think we also educated the country a little bit."

[George Hartzog]: "Mrs. Johnson had accepted the challenge of saving the natural environment and a personal challenge of her own. She became our premier traveling sales lady."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "It was a glorious part of those years, and I fell in love all over again with the physical country. The Redwoods are bound to thrill you and give you a sense of the age of this land and its offering."

"She was a role model to us as individuals, as well as the nation. She was an enormously disciplined person. Can you imagine recording her journey every night? She did her homework, was ready to go, and brightened the world and all of us. It was a shining light that was greatly needed."

"Lady Bird never used the word 'environment' as much as we would have liked. The word 'beautification' didn't fully express what we were doing and her larger interests. We were taking action that changed the nation's thoughts, resulting in numerous laws: clean air, clean water, wild rivers... you name it."

"Her influence was not just during the five years she was there but in the momentum she created. During that period, more areas were added to the national park system than had been added in the previous 35 years. It was like an ocean wave that just kept building and continued for years afterward."

"This expansion of the park system would not have happened without steady support from the First Lady and the President."

[Narrator]: "Lady Bird believed that America's highways were an engineering wonder, akin to the pyramids of Egypt. But traveling between Texas and Washington, D.C., made her realize that the highways could use some cleaning up."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "I would just love to make these broad stretches of highways across the country not only safe and functional but also a pleasurable experience. It's like opening up the heart of the country, letting us see who we are."

 [Stewart Udall]: “Where she provided the initiative, and that’s always important, it was undoubtedly highway beautification. It was literally her legislation, along with the President’s push, that got it done. But it was more than just the law—it changed the feeling in this country about highways.

[Narrator]: Her efforts to rid the highways of billboards met with some resistance, but President Johnson was steadfast in supporting her. 'I love that woman, and she wants this highway bill,' he said to his cabinet. 'By God, we’re going to get it for her.' Together, they did.

[Lynda Johnson Robb]: "He wanted her judgment and would frequently say, 'Well, I have to talk to Lady Bird about that.' She was the one who could tell him when he was doing something wrong. He knew she would always tell him the truth, and she wasn’t trying to get attention for herself. “

“No telling how many crises have been avoided by Lady Bird Johnson saying to her husband, 'Now, Lyndon, I think…' Those two words probably made a major difference in history."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "He valued me and respected my opinion, and I was deeply grateful for that. I wanted to be worth it."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "Would you like to listen to my critique for about one minute or would you rather wait until later?"

[LBJ]: "Yes ma'am, I’m willing now."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "During your statement, you were a little breathless, and it was too much looking down. I think it was a little too fast. When you have a prepared text, you need to study it a little more and read it with more conviction and interest. Overall, I’d give it a B+."

[Stewart Udall]: "There's no question that Vietnam intruded in a very important way and I saw this once when Lady Bird Johnson and I came to Santa Fe New Mexico and here for the first time she was being picketed.”

[Luci Baines Johnson]: "Our family gave all that we had. My father gave his political life to try to bring an honorable peace. My former husband and both of my brothers-in-law served there. It was a family affair, but so was our conviction to support everything my father tried to accomplish during his administration."

[LBJ]: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

“We were driving out of the North Portico one evening, with the sky crystal clear and the lights of the White House beginning to sparkle. As we drove out, I asked Lady Bird, 'Are you going to miss this?' She looked around and said, 'Oh yes. I’ll miss it, I’ll miss it every day. I’ll miss it like a front tooth. But you know, there’s absolutely nothing in the world that would make me willing to pay the price for another ticket of admission.’”

[Narrator]: After 35 years in Washington, D.C., the Johnsons were back home in Texas. Together, they built the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum at the University of Texas. Lady Bird became a regent of the university and led efforts to clean up and beautify the banks of the Colorado River in Austin."

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "What you want with public money, in my opinion, is joyous use and good maintenance."

[Narrator]: Lady Bird’s love for wildflowers led to the creation of the National Wildflower Research Center, a place to educate the public.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "I hope visitors will come to appreciate what is native and indigenous, what the Lord put there—what grows in Virginia, Washington State, Vermont, Alabama, and Texas."

[LBJ]: "There's no other place that can do for me what this soil, this land, this water, and these hills can do."

[Luci Baines Johnson]: "She came to love it as much as he did. One ironic thing was that my dad would often say, 'Let’s go look at the deer,' and mother had seen this about a million times. She knew all the deer by their first names. But after dad died, she started saying, 'Let’s go look at the deer,' and it became something she truly cherished."

"My grandmother always had a way of bringing us all home. Whenever I think of Heaven, I imagine it to be just like the ranch—on a beautiful spring or fall day. My grandmother will be sitting at the table in the morning, playing cards, eating ice cream, and surrounded by the people I love in the place I love."

[Lady Bird Johnson, greeting visitors] : "Hi y’all, are you from far away? Where are you from?" "Utah?" "Oh yes, I have a grandchild there, getting educated, naturally!"

[Narrator]: The LBJ Ranch, on the banks of the Pedernales River, is now part of the National Park Service, a gift made long ago by the Johnsons to the American people.

[Lady Bird Johnson]: "I guess it's from 1967 that it was put in, and it’s close to 30 years old. You really have to plan for the future when you plant live oaks. But the future is going to happen, and if you have children and grandchildren, you’re spurred on to plan for the future."

"I think of her caring for people, wanting to enhance their lives, and giving them a new dimension of enjoyment and identity with their heritage, environment, and spiritual nature. Her legacy is like a tall tree in the National Forest."

"It’s not just environmentalism—she was trying to show that this is what it can do for you. When you’re around her, you begin to think, 'Maybe we can do something, maybe we can make a difference.' She made a profound difference on this Earth."