America Mourns Loss of Lovable Lady Bird Johnson

By Nathan Black, Christian Post Reporter Friday, July 13, 2007

A series of services remembering Lady Bird Johnson, who died Wednesday, are taking place Friday.

At the former first lady's own requests, Johnson will follow the same path her husband, former president Lyndon B. Johnson, did 34 years ago to lie in repose at the LBJ Library and Museum at the University of Texas where the public can visit her casket beginning 1:15 p.m.

"Lady Bird Johnson was a wonderful woman devoted to her husband, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was one of the greatest women I have ever known," evangelist Billy Graham, who had preached at her husband's funeral service in 1973, said in a statement.

Johnson, an Episcopalian, died at age 94 as family and friends sang a hymn and prayed at her bedside just before her passing.

"Even though death scenes are not exactly enjoyable ... the meaning of it was so beautiful, the faith of these people," said the Rev. Bob Scott, a friend of the family who was called to the former first lady's Austin home on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. "The Holy Spirit sort of works with us once in a while, gets us to do what we should do at the proper moment and for the proper situation. I felt myself blessed to be there."

In a 1994 interview with Jan Jarboe Russell, author of Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson, Johnson said she believed in heaven.

"I do know that there is something hereafter, because all this has been too significant, too magnificent, for there not to be something after. Heaven, to me, is a mystery, a place I'll know what all this - the events of my life - meant."

Mourners began trickling in to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on Thursday. Johnson was an environmentalist devoted to preserving wildflowers and native plants and founded the center in 1982.

The former first lady has been characterized as lovable, warm and gracious.

Jim Hardin, special agent in charge of Johnson's detail for 22 years, summed it up by saying, "We've lost a true friend."

"She was one of a kind," he added.