Lady Bird Johnson

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Person.png Lady Bird Johnson  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(Socialite, politician's wife)
Lady Bird Johnson, photo portrait, standing at rear of White House, color, crop.jpg
BornClaudia Alta Taylor
1912-12-22
Karnack, Texas, U.S.
Died2007-07-11 (Age 94)
West Lake Hills, Texas, U.S.
Alma materSt. Mary's Episcopal College for Women, University of Texas at Austin
Children • Lynda
• Luci
SpouseLyndon Johnson
PartyDemocratic
Turned $41,000 investment into more than $150 million

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (née Taylor) was an American socialite and First Lady of the United States as the wife of the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson from 1963 to 1969. She had previously beenthe Second Lady from 1961 to 1963 when her husband was Vice President.

Official Story

Notably well-educated for a woman of her era, Lady Bird proved a capable manager and a successful investor. After marrying Lyndon B. Johnson in 1934 when he was a political hopeful in Austin, Texas, she used a modest inheritance to bankroll his congressional campaign and then ran his office while he was in the Navy.

In January–February 1943, during World War II, Lady Bird Johnson spent $17,500 of her inheritance to purchase KTBC, an Austin radio station.[1] She bought the radio station from a three-man partnership that included Robert B. Anderson, a future U.S. Secretary of the Navy and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and Texas oilman and rancher Wesley West.

Eventually, Lady Bird's initial $41,000 investment turned into more than $150 million for the LBJ Holding Company.[2]

Suite 8F Group

The ' clever investments' were helped to success by her husbands backers in the Suite 8F Group of businessmen, who controlled him through his entire career, and was in fact bribery money. She was the conduit through which these money were channeled, later somewhat helped by LBJ's lobbying in Congress for his own companies.


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