As a military wife, I have had to move homes three times and jobs four times in six years. I can certainly identify with anyone reluctant to invest too much into a temporary living space; but I have a deeply rooted desire to leave each place better than how I found it. I’ve painted classroom walls, deep cleaned vandalized desks and materials, left behind fresh books, planted flowers, weeded garden beds in temporary apartments, repurposed thrift store finds for my home only to sell them before moving two years later, and so on. I understand why some feel like it’s pointless to pour such sweat into something you can’t keep for long; but when I look at the fields that line the Texas Highways every spring I can’t help but wonder if Lady Bird Johnson was a kindred spirit.

Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson was as involved in her role as first lady as she was a devout wife to LBJ. I don’t believe Lyndon B. Johnson could have ever become president without Lady Bird. While president, he couldn’t have kept his sanity without her. I wonder how many journalists, photographers, aides, and other politicians paid attention to him because of her. She could hold her own and be absolutely independent, but she also chose to honor her husband as his helpmate for life. Her legacy as a wife and First Lady lives on like the millions of flowers that bloom every year because of her.

When Claudia Alta Taylor was born, one of her caregivers said that she was as “pretty as a lady bird” and her nickname stuck for life. Her mother died when she was young, leaving her an inheritance, and her father owned crops and was an effective entrepreneur who created great wealth. Lady Bird surely learned a lot not only from her formal education but her father’s example as she was a great business woman. Growing up she spent a lot of time in the outdoors and had a love for nature her whole life. She was very well educated, studied journalism, earned multiple Bachelor’s Degrees, and acquired a teaching certificate. She fell in love with a congressional aide named Lyndon Baines Johnson and once they married they shared the initials LBJ. Eventually they would have two daughters who also shared their initials.

When Mr. Johnson wanted to run for congress, Lady Bird invested some of her inheritance into his campaign. She ran with him. She ran for him. When he enlisted in the Navy and deployed, Lady Bird ran the congressional office for him! She worked as a liaison for him countless times. I imagine Lyndon’s time in the Navy had a profound impact on Lady Bird’s adaptability, independence, and sacrificial love for him (I can relate). As a teenager, she let her grades slip so that she wouldn’t have to make a valedictorian speech at graduation; but as a politician’s wife she toured the country, sometimes alone, making speeches for her husband.

Lady Bird also made Mr. Johnson rich. She turned a $41,000 investment of her inheritance into $150 million dollars by purchasing and running Texas radio and television stations. She ran their multiple businesses and most of her investments were successful. In fact Lady Bird was so gifted with administrative abilities, she was the “first” First Lady to hire a press secretary and chief of staff of her own. Of the American First Lady’s, she was the very first to have a big staff.

During LBJ’s vice presidency, Lady Bird substituted for Jacqueline Kennedy at official events every week so that Jackie could rest through her pregnancy. Within hours of JFK’s assassination, Johnson was sworn into the president’s position while flying back on Air Force One. At the end of that term, he didn’t want to run for re-election as he felt that the people had never chosen him. His staff could not persuade him, but Lady Bird did. So at her prompting, he ran for re-election and won. Then it was Lady Bird four years later who convinced him not to run for re-election for the sake of his health. She also made peace for Lyndon on several occasions, such as when he had a spat with Dan Rather or a White House photographer. She ran after these individuals and pleaded with them for her husband’s sake and won them over.

While serving as First Lady, she was the first to make a solo whistlestop tour as an activist for the civil rights movement. Lady Bird was the first to write a book about her White House years. She was the first president’s wife to actively advocate for legislation and the first to have a comprehensive program in her own name. She boldly approached the Senate regarding the Highway Beautification Act which would be nick named “The Lady Bird Bill”. She rallied to get flower seeds sown around highways, inspiring other similar projects across the nation to do the same, and as a result has beautified them for generations. Thanks to Lady Bird, every year Texans such as myself look forward to photographing their families with fields of Blue Bonnets in the backdrop. I will always be grateful to her for that.

Lady Bird said, “Where flowers grow, so does hope.” I think of this sometimes when I plant flowers in a place that I know I will eventually have to leave, and I see this as an analogy in my life as I think about what I will leave behind. Can you imagine how many people every year feel a little joy when they drive past fields of gorgeous flowers because of one woman’s dream? Those seeds from those flowers continue to reseed and multiply, year after year, long after Lady Bird advocated for their planting. As a teacher, mother, wife, friend, and nature lover, I plan to spend my life planting seeds figuratively and literally so that when I leave there will be something beautiful left behind.