Lady Bird and Wildflowers...
Last year the National Wildflower Research Center honored Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson by renaming their center after her.Personally, I'm no big fan of widow Johnson. But before I explain why, let me give you a little update on Lady Bird.
I was surprised in the process of preparing this article to discover that Lady Bird Johnson is still alive. The former first lady celebrated her 86th birthday in December. The National Wildflower Research Center was founded by Lady Bird about 16 years ago.
At 86, Lady Bird is legally blind, walks with the help of a cane, and suffers from arthritis. She lives on the family's Hill Country ranch, where her late husband is buried. She has three grandchildren.
Lady Bird Johnson's involvement in environmental issues gained national attention in the mid 1960's. Her work on the issue play was the driving force behind the 1965 Highway Beautification Act (the HBA). That act regulated the advertizing that could be displayed alone federal highways and promoted the spread of wild flowers as a way of making rural America a prettier place to visit.
In November of 1996, Lady Bird was given the Environmental Law Institute's ELI Award. ELI Board Chairman Don Stever called Johnson "the First Lady of environmental management". Johnson's granddaughter, Lucinda Robb, accepted the award for her.
"Lady Bird Johnson's name is synonymous with the beautification of America," Stever said.
Well, I suppose that depends in part on your idea of beauty...
Picking bones
I have two main bones to pick with the former first lady over the issue of what is and what is not beautiful. The first has to do with the advertizing focus of the HBA.
One of the places that suffered the most from The Lady Bird Act, as the HBA became known, was an Appalachian landmark: Rock City. The Lady Bird Act took the 10-acre garden spot on top of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and targeted its main form of advertising: barn roofs.
The first lady from Texas didn't like having the See Rock City slogan painted all over the American South - even if it had become a portion of America's heritage. The words covered the sides of little country stores and gas stations in a dozen states. It was a place where advertizing met art. And the two usually met on private property.
