By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
Leslie Goddard will present two different programs within a week at the Geneseo Public Library.
At 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 5, historian and author Leslie Goddard will portray the American entrepreneur, fashion designer and socialite Lilly Pulitzer.
Goddard returns to the Geneseo Library at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9, where she will characterize Lady Bird Johnson.
ABOUT LADY BIRD JOHNSON:
It’s 1969 and Lady Bird Johnson has returned to Texas at the end of her husband’s presidency. As she welcomes visitors to her home, she reminisces about her years in Washington, the experiences that brought her to the White House, and how she forged her own path as an advocate for the environment, civil rights and her husband.
Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor on Dec. 22, 1912, in Karnack, Texas, in an antebellum plantation house. Opinions differ about whether the name Lady Bird refers to a bird or a ladybug. The nickname virtually replaces her first name for the rest of her life. Her father and siblings called Her Lady and her husband called her Bird, the name she used on her marriage license. As a teenager, some classmates called her Bird to provoke her since she reportedly was not fond of the name.
As First Lady, she broke new ground by interacting directly with Congress, employing her prese secretary and making a solo electioneering tour. She advocated beautifying the nation’s cities and highways, saying “Where flowers bloom, so does hope,” and “The environment is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest.”
The Highway Beautification Act was informally known as “Lady Bird’s Bill.”
Information from the Geneseo Library states that Lady Bird Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional God Medal in 1984, the highest honors bestowed upon a U.S. civilian. She has been consistently ranked in Siena College Research Institute surveys as one of the most highly regarded American First Ladies per historians’ assessments.