Presidents ; Past to Present

JFK Assassination
Locked
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

Post by Pennyworth »

deleted...
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

President Clinton...

Post by Pennyworth »

From Hope Arkansas, father listed as dying before his birth (name Blythe) .

I don't know if I said this before and I am busy today..so forgive me for a repeat...President Clinton was rumored to be former governor of Arkansas' Winthrop Rockefeller's illigitimate son...(how else did a former poor farm boy get to Harvard, then elected governor for 12 years, then elected President? ) I read that the Rockefellers own the whole state or Arkansas which has one of the largest components for aluminun processing manufacturing...

Now Clinton wanted to do what JFK wanted to do, to change to the bretton woods (sterling silver based moneyexchange system ) The powers that be were going to take Clinton out for this, then discovered that he was a Rockefeller, so decided to have him impeached instead.....

Truth or fantasy, yes or no???
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

TIME Magazine July 2,2007..JFK on Front Cover...

Post by Pennyworth »

Warrior For Peace - The Lessons of JFK - TIMEOr was he a man ahead of his time, a peace-minded visionary trying to untie the ... What We Can Learn From JFK. How should America navigate through a world ...
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/ ... 54,00.html - Jun 26, 2007 - Similar pages

TIME Magazine Cover: What We Can Learn From JFK - July 2, 2007 ...TIME Magazine Cover: What We Can Learn From JFK. ... Copyright © Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is ...
www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070702,00.html - 30k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.time.com ]

eBay: Time Magazine "What We Can Learn From JFK" July 2, 2007 ...Find Time Magazine "What We Can Learn From JFK" July 2, 2007 in the Books , Magazine Back Issues category on eBay.
cgi.ebay.com/Time-Magazine-What-We-Can-Learn-From-JFK-July-2-2007_W0QQitemZ120135474954QQcmdZViewItem - 76k - Cached - Similar pages

eBay: TIME, What We Can Learn From JFKennedy; Making of Ameri ...Find TIME, What We Can Learn From JFKennedy; Making of Ameri in the Books , Magazine ... TIME Magazine. The 6th Annual Making of America Issue. July 2, 2007 ...
cgi.ebay.com/TIME-What-We-Can-Learn-From-JFKennedy-Making-of-Ameri_W0QQitemZ220124883255QQihZ012QQcategor... - 80k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from cgi.ebay.com ]
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

Bug speaks...

Post by Pennyworth »

The Lessons of J.F.K.John F. Kennedy7 of 7 The Kennedy Assassination: Was There a Conspiracy?By DAVID TALBOT & VINCENT BUGLIOSI Bobby suspected his brother's assassination emerged from the plotting by Cuban exiles, the Mafia and the CIA to kill Castro. From left, CIA Director John McCone, Castro, FBI Director Hoover, who first informed Bobby of J.F.K.'s death, and New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello. At right, Oswald.
Zapruder Film (c) 1967 The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
Article ToolsPrintEmail (2 of 2)

Bugliosi....

No.
I have found there are 32 separate reasons for concluding there was no conspiracy. Here are just a few of them:

After 44 years of investigation by thousands of researchers, not one speck of credible evidence has ever surfaced that groups such as the CIA, organized crime or the military-industrial complex were behind the assassination, only that they each had a motive. And when there is no evidence of guilt, that fact, by itself, is very strong evidence of innocence. Moreover, the very thought of members of the military-industrial complex (Joint Chiefs of Staff, captains of industry) or the CIA or organized crime actually plotting to murder the President of the U.S. is surreal, the type of thing that only belongs, if at all, in a Robert Ludlum novel.

I have found 53 pieces of evidence that point irresistibly to Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt. For example, the murder weapon was Oswald's; he was the only employee who fled the Texas School Book Depository after the shooting in Dealey Plaza; 45 min. later, he killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit; 30 min. after that, he resisted arrest and pulled his gun on the arresting officer. What's more, during his interrogation, Oswald's efforts to construct a defense—which included denying that he owned the rifle in question (or any rifle at all)—turned out to be a string of provable lies, all of which show an unmistakable consciousness of guilt. Only in a fantasy world can you have 53 pieces of evidence against you and still be innocent. Conspiracy theorists are stuck with this reality.

Even assuming that the CIA or Mob or military-industrial complex decided "Let's murder President Kennedy," Oswald would be among the last people in the world those organizations would choose for the job. Oswald was not an expert shot and owned only a $12 mail-order rifle—both of which automatically disqualify him as a hit man. He was also a notoriously unreliable and emotionally unstable misfit who tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists when the Soviets denied him the citizenship he sought. If the Mafia leaders, for instance, decided to kill the President of the U.S.—an act that would result in a retaliation against them of unprecedented proportions if they were discovered to be behind it—wouldn't they use a very professional, tight-lipped assassin who had a successful track record with them, someone in whom they had the highest confidence? Would they rely on someone like Oswald to commit the biggest murder in American history?

But let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that the CIA or Mob decided to kill Kennedy and also decided that Oswald should do the job. It still doesn't make any sense. After Oswald shot Kennedy and left the book depository, one of two things would have happened, the less likely of which is that a car would have been waiting for him to help him escape down to Mexico or wherever. The conspirators certainly wouldn't want their killer to be apprehended and interrogated by the authorities. But the more likely thing by far is that the car would have driven Oswald to his death. Instead, we know that Oswald was out on the street with $13 in his pockets, attempting to flag down buses and cabs. What does that fact, alone, tell you?

Three people can keep a secret but only if two are dead. Yet we are asked to believe that in 44 years, not one word of the vast alleged conspiracy, not one syllable, has ever leaked out. Additionally, the motorcade route in Dallas, which took the President right beneath Oswald's window, wasn't even selected until Nov. 18, just four days before the assassination. Surely no rational person can believe a group like the CIA or the Mob would hatch its conspiracy with Oswald to kill Kennedy within only four days of the President's trip to Dallas.

To this day, the overwhelming majority of the American people (75%) have bought into the conspiracy idea. Their reasons vary widely: general mistrust of government; the desire to imbue Kennedy's death with deeper meaning than a random act of violence or a simple relish for intrigue. Despite the total lack of evidence, the story of a J.F.K. assassination conspiracy has captivated the nation for the past half-century and is likely to do so for many years to come.


Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 | 2
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

Re: Bug speaks...

Post by Pennyworth »

Paul Pennyworth wrote:The Lessons of J.F.K.John F. Kennedy7 of 7 The Kennedy Assassination: Was There a Conspiracy?By DAVID TALBOT & VINCENT BUGLIOSI Bobby suspected his brother's assassination emerged from the plotting by Cuban exiles, the Mafia and the CIA to kill Castro. From left, CIA Director John McCone, Castro, FBI Director Hoover, who first informed Bobby of J.F.K.'s death, and New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello. At right, Oswald.Zapruder Film (c) 1967 The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.Article ToolsPrintEmail (2 of 2)Bugliosi....No.I have found there are 32 separate reasons for concluding there was no conspiracy. Here are just a few of them: After 44 years of investigation by thousands of researchers, not one speck of credible evidence has ever surfaced that groups such as the CIA, organized crime or the military-industrial complex were behind the assassination, only that they each had a motive. And when there is no evidence of guilt, that fact, by itself, is very strong evidence of innocence. Moreover, the very thought of members of the military-industrial complex (Joint Chiefs of Staff, captains of industry) or the CIA or organized crime actually plotting to murder the President of the U.S. is surreal, the type of thing that only belongs, if at all, in a Robert Ludlum novel. I have found 53 pieces of evidence that point irresistibly to Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt. For example, the murder weapon was Oswald's; he was the only employee who fled the Texas School Book Depository after the shooting in Dealey Plaza; 45 min. later, he killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit; 30 min. after that, he resisted arrest and pulled his gun on the arresting officer. What's more, during his interrogation, Oswald's efforts to construct a defense—which included denying that he owned the rifle in question (or any rifle at all)—turned out to be a string of provable lies, all of which show an unmistakable consciousness of guilt. Only in a fantasy world can you have 53 pieces of evidence against you and still be innocent. Conspiracy theorists are stuck with this reality. Even assuming that the CIA or Mob or military-industrial complex decided "Let's murder President Kennedy," Oswald would be among the last people in the world those organizations would choose for the job. Oswald was not an expert shot and owned only a $12 mail-order rifle—both of which automatically disqualify him as a hit man. He was also a notoriously unreliable and emotionally unstable misfit who tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists when the Soviets denied him the citizenship he sought. If the Mafia leaders, for instance, decided to kill the President of the U.S.—an act that would result in a retaliation against them of unprecedented proportions if they were discovered to be behind it—wouldn't they use a very professional, tight-lipped assassin who had a successful track record with them, someone in whom they had the highest confidence? Would they rely on someone like Oswald to commit the biggest murder in American history? But let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that the CIA or Mob decided to kill Kennedy and also decided that Oswald should do the job. It still doesn't make any sense. After Oswald shot Kennedy and left the book depository, one of two things would have happened, the less likely of which is that a car would have been waiting for him to help him escape down to Mexico or wherever. The conspirators certainly wouldn't want their killer to be apprehended and interrogated by the authorities. But the more likely thing by far is that the car would have driven Oswald to his death. Instead, we know that Oswald was out on the street with $13 in his pockets, attempting to flag down buses and cabs. What does that fact, alone, tell you? Three people can keep a secret but only if two are dead. Yet we are asked to believe that in 44 years, not one word of the vast alleged conspiracy, not one syllable, has ever leaked out. Additionally, the motorcade route in Dallas, which took the President right beneath Oswald's window, wasn't even selected until Nov. 18, just four days before the assassination. Surely no rational person can believe a group like the CIA or the Mob would hatch its conspiracy with Oswald to kill Kennedy within only four days of the President's trip to Dallas. To this day, the overwhelming majority of the American people (75%) have bought into the conspiracy idea. Their reasons vary widely: general mistrust of government; the desire to imbue Kennedy's death with deeper meaning than a random act of violence or a simple relish for intrigue. Despite the total lack of evidence, the story of a J.F.K. assassination conspiracy has captivated the nation for the past half-century and is likely to do so for many years to come. Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 | 2

The Kennedy Assassination: Was There a Conspiracy?By DAVID TALBOT & VINCENT BUGLIOSI Bobby suspected his brother's assassination emerged from the plotting by Cuban exiles, the Mafia and the CIA to kill Castro.

YES!

On Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, Robert F. Kennedy—J.F.K.'s younger brother, Attorney General and devoted watchman—was eating lunch at Hickory Hill, his Virginia home, when he got the news from Dallas. It was his archenemy, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, of all people, who phoned to tell him. "The President's been shot," Hoover curtly said. Bobby later recalled, "I think he told me with pleasure."

For the rest of the day and night, Bobby Kennedy would wrestle with his howling grief while using whatever power was still left him to figure out what really happened in Dallas—before the new Administration settled firmly into place under the command of another political enemy, Lyndon Johnson. While the Attorney General's aides summoned federal Marshals to surround R.F.K.'s estate (they no longer trusted the Secret Service or the FBI)—uncertain of whether the President's brother would be the next target—Bobby feverishly gathered information. He worked the phones at Hickory Hill, talking to people who had been in the presidential motorcade; he conferred with a succession of government officials and aides while waiting for Air Force One to return with the body of his brother; he accompanied his brother's remains to the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he took steps to take control of medical evidence, including the President's brain; and he stayed coiled and awake in the White House until early the next morning. Lit up with the clarity of shock, the electricity of adrenaline, he constructed the outlines of the crime. Bobby Kennedy would become America's first J.F.K. assassination-conspiracy theorist.

The President's brother quickly concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, had not acted alone. And Bobby immediately suspected the CIA's secret war on Fidel Castro as the source of the plot. At his home that Friday afternoon, Bobby confronted CIA Director John McCone, asking him point-blank whether the agency had killed J.F.K. (McCone denied it.) Later, R.F.K. ordered aides to explore a possible Mafia connection to the crime. And in a revealing phone conversation with Harry Ruiz-Williams, a trusted friend in the anti-Castro movement, Kennedy said bluntly, "One of your guys did it." Though the CIA and the FBI were already working strenuously to portray Oswald as a communist agent, Bobby Kennedy rejected this view. Instead, he concluded Oswald was a member of the shadowy operation that was seeking to overthrow Castro.

Bobby knew that a dark alliance—the CIA, the Mafia and militant Cuban exiles—had formed to assassinate Castro and force a regime change in Havana. That's because President Kennedy had given his brother the Cuban portfolio after the CIA's Bay of Pigs fiasco. But Bobby, who would begin some days by dropping by the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va., on his way to the Justice Department, never managed to get fully in control of the agency's sprawling, covert war on Castro. Now, he suspected, this underground world—where J.F.K. was despised for betraying the anti-Castro cause—had spawned his brother's assassination.

As Kennedy slowly emerged from his torment over Dallas and resumed an active role in public life—running for U.S. Senator from New York in 1964 and then President in 1968—he secretly investigated his brother's assassination. He traveled to Mexico City, where he gathered information about Oswald's mysterious trip there before Dallas. He met with conspiracy researcher Penn Jones Jr., a crusading Texas newspaperman, in his Senate office. He returned to the Justice Department with his ace investigator Walter Sheridan to paw through old files. He dispatched trusted associates to New Orleans to report to him on prosecutor Jim Garrison's controversial reopening of the case. Kennedy told confidants that he himself would reopen the investigation into the assassination if he won the presidency, believing it would take the full powers of the office to do so. As Kennedy adviser Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once observed, no one of his era knew more than Bobby about "the underground streams through which so much of the actuality of American power darkly coursed: the FBI, CIA, the racketeering unions and the Mob." But when it came to his brother's murder, Bobby never got a chance to prove his case.
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

Re: Bug speaks...

Post by Pennyworth »

Paul Pennyworth wrote:Paul Pennyworth wrote:The Lessons of J.F.K.John F. Kennedy7 of 7 The Kennedy Assassination: Was There a Conspiracy?By DAVID TALBOT & VINCENT BUGLIOSI Bobby suspected his brother's assassination emerged from the plotting by Cuban exiles, the Mafia and the CIA to kill Castro. From left, CIA Director John McCone, Castro, FBI Director Hoover, who first informed Bobby of J.F.K.'s death, and New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello. At right, Oswald.Zapruder Film (c) 1967 The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.Article ToolsPrintEmail (2 of 2)Bugliosi....No.I have found there are 32 separate reasons for concluding there was no conspiracy. Here are just a few of them: After 44 years of investigation by thousands of researchers, not one speck of credible evidence has ever surfaced that groups such as the CIA, organized crime or the military-industrial complex were behind the assassination, only that they each had a motive. And when there is no evidence of guilt, that fact, by itself, is very strong evidence of innocence. Moreover, the very thought of members of the military-industrial complex (Joint Chiefs of Staff, captains of industry) or the CIA or organized crime actually plotting to murder the President of the U.S. is surreal, the type of thing that only belongs, if at all, in a Robert Ludlum novel. I have found 53 pieces of evidence that point irresistibly to Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt. For example, the murder weapon was Oswald's; he was the only employee who fled the Texas School Book Depository after the shooting in Dealey Plaza; 45 min. later, he killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit; 30 min. after that, he resisted arrest and pulled his gun on the arresting officer. What's more, during his interrogation, Oswald's efforts to construct a defense—which included denying that he owned the rifle in question (or any rifle at all)—turned out to be a string of provable lies, all of which show an unmistakable consciousness of guilt. Only in a fantasy world can you have 53 pieces of evidence against you and still be innocent. Conspiracy theorists are stuck with this reality. Even assuming that the CIA or Mob or military-industrial complex decided "Let's murder President Kennedy," Oswald would be among the last people in the world those organizations would choose for the job. Oswald was not an expert shot and owned only a $12 mail-order rifle—both of which automatically disqualify him as a hit man. He was also a notoriously unreliable and emotionally unstable misfit who tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists when the Soviets denied him the citizenship he sought. If the Mafia leaders, for instance, decided to kill the President of the U.S.—an act that would result in a retaliation against them of unprecedented proportions if they were discovered to be behind it—wouldn't they use a very professional, tight-lipped assassin who had a successful track record with them, someone in whom they had the highest confidence? Would they rely on someone like Oswald to commit the biggest murder in American history? But let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that the CIA or Mob decided to kill Kennedy and also decided that Oswald should do the job. It still doesn't make any sense. After Oswald shot Kennedy and left the book depository, one of two things would have happened, the less likely of which is that a car would have been waiting for him to help him escape down to Mexico or wherever. The conspirators certainly wouldn't want their killer to be apprehended and interrogated by the authorities. But the more likely thing by far is that the car would have driven Oswald to his death. Instead, we know that Oswald was out on the street with $13 in his pockets, attempting to flag down buses and cabs. What does that fact, alone, tell you? Three people can keep a secret but only if two are dead. Yet we are asked to believe that in 44 years, not one word of the vast alleged conspiracy, not one syllable, has ever leaked out. Additionally, the motorcade route in Dallas, which took the President right beneath Oswald's window, wasn't even selected until Nov. 18, just four days before the assassination. Surely no rational person can believe a group like the CIA or the Mob would hatch its conspiracy with Oswald to kill Kennedy within only four days of the President's trip to Dallas. To this day, the overwhelming majority of the American people (75%) have bought into the conspiracy idea. Their reasons vary widely: general mistrust of government; the desire to imbue Kennedy's death with deeper meaning than a random act of violence or a simple relish for intrigue. Despite the total lack of evidence, the story of a J.F.K. assassination conspiracy has captivated the nation for the past half-century and is likely to do so for many years to come. Page 2 of 2 Previous 1 | 2The Kennedy Assassination: Was There a Conspiracy?By DAVID TALBOT & VINCENT BUGLIOSI Bobby suspected his brother's assassination emerged from the plotting by Cuban exiles, the Mafia and the CIA to kill Castro. Talbot ... YES! On Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, Robert F. Kennedy—J.F.K.'s younger brother, Attorney General and devoted watchman—was eating lunch at Hickory Hill, his Virginia home, when he got the news from Dallas. It was his archenemy, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, of all people, who phoned to tell him. "The President's been shot," Hoover curtly said. Bobby later recalled, "I think he told me with pleasure." For the rest of the day and night, Bobby Kennedy would wrestle with his howling grief while using whatever power was still left him to figure out what really happened in Dallas—before the new Administration settled firmly into place under the command of another political enemy, Lyndon Johnson. While the Attorney General's aides summoned federal Marshals to surround R.F.K.'s estate (they no longer trusted the Secret Service or the FBI)—uncertain of whether the President's brother would be the next target—Bobby feverishly gathered information. He worked the phones at Hickory Hill, talking to people who had been in the presidential motorcade; he conferred with a succession of government officials and aides while waiting for Air Force One to return with the body of his brother; he accompanied his brother's remains to the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he took steps to take control of medical evidence, including the President's brain; and he stayed coiled and awake in the White House until early the next morning. Lit up with the clarity of shock, the electricity of adrenaline, he constructed the outlines of the crime. Bobby Kennedy would become America's first J.F.K. assassination-conspiracy theorist. The President's brother quickly concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, had not acted alone. And Bobby immediately suspected the CIA's secret war on Fidel Castro as the source of the plot. At his home that Friday afternoon, Bobby confronted CIA Director John McCone, asking him point-blank whether the agency had killed J.F.K. (McCone denied it.) Later, R.F.K. ordered aides to explore a possible Mafia connection to the crime. And in a revealing phone conversation with Harry Ruiz-Williams, a trusted friend in the anti-Castro movement, Kennedy said bluntly, "One of your guys did it." Though the CIA and the FBI were already working strenuously to portray Oswald as a communist agent, Bobby Kennedy rejected this view. Instead, he concluded Oswald was a member of the shadowy operation that was seeking to overthrow Castro. Bobby knew that a dark alliance—the CIA, the Mafia and militant Cuban exiles—had formed to assassinate Castro and force a regime change in Havana. That's because President Kennedy had given his brother the Cuban portfolio after the CIA's Bay of Pigs fiasco. But Bobby, who would begin some days by dropping by the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va., on his way to the Justice Department, never managed to get fully in control of the agency's sprawling, covert war on Castro. Now, he suspected, this underground world—where J.F.K. was despised for betraying the anti-Castro cause—had spawned his brother's assassination. As Kennedy slowly emerged from his torment over Dallas and resumed an active role in public life—running for U.S. Senator from New York in 1964 and then President in 1968—he secretly investigated his brother's assassination. He traveled to Mexico City, where he gathered information about Oswald's mysterious trip there before Dallas. He met with conspiracy researcher Penn Jones Jr., a crusading Texas newspaperman, in his Senate office. He returned to the Justice Department with his ace investigator Walter Sheridan to paw through old files. He dispatched trusted associates to New Orleans to report to him on prosecutor Jim Garrison's controversial reopening of the case. Kennedy told confidants that he himself would reopen the investigation into the assassination if he won the presidency, believing it would take the full powers of the office to do so. As Kennedy adviser Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once observed, no one of his era knew more than Bobby about "the underground streams through which so much of the actuality of American power darkly coursed: the FBI, CIA, the racketeering unions and the Mob." But when it came to his brother's murder, Bobby never got a chance to prove his case.
Pennyworth
Posts: 2931
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 pm

Re: First Lady Ladybird dies...

Post by Pennyworth »

Paul Pennyworth wrote:http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=6777123&nav=2F ..It happened about an hour ago.......


AP Texas News



July 11, 2007, 7:32PM
Nation reacts to passing of former first lady


By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


AUSTIN, Texas — Public officials spanning the past four decades remembered former first lady Lady Bird Johnson on Wednesday as a graceful family woman whose legacy will endure each year through the blooming wildflowers she so loved.

A champion of conservation, the widow of President Lyndon Baines Johnson died Wednesday of natural causes at her Austin home.

Former President George H.W. Bush said he and wife, Barbara, often think of Mrs. Johnson during the spring months, while driving through the Texas countryside.

"That was when her legacy was in its full glory and we would marvel at and enjoy the bluebonnets and other wildflowers that covered the Texas countryside, indeed all of America," Bush said. "She made the world beautiful in so many ways and was beautiful to all of us who knew and loved her."

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said her work with the National Wildflower Research Center helped make America more beautiful.

"Lady Bird lived by her words when she said that we are obligated to leave the country looking as good if not better than we found it," he said.

At the news of her passing, many noted her unwavering kindness in the often cutthroat world of politics.

The first President Bush said he became friends with the Johnsons "when Barbara and I arrived in Washington in 1967, and although I was just a junior congressman from Texas — and on the other side of the political aisle — she and President Johnson made us feel very welcome."

President George W. Bush said he and wife, Laura, considered Mrs. Johnson "our good friend, and a warm and gracious woman."

"Those who were blessed to know her remember Mrs. Johnson's lively and charming personality, and our nation will always remember her with affection," he said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy remembered Mrs. Johnson as a "wonderful First Lady and one of the kindest and most caring and compassionate people I've ever met in politics.

"She was a great friend to the Kennedy family, in both good times and bad, and we cherished every moment we spent with her," said Kennedy, the brother of President John F. Kennedy, whose death boosted then-Vice President Johnson to the White House.

"Mrs. Johnson became First Lady on a fateful day in November 1963 and was a steady, gentle presence for a mourning nation in the days that followed," President Bush said.

Even while living in Washington, D.C., Mrs. Johnson earned her reputation as "a Texas rose."

"While her husband, Lyndon, could be brash, she was benevolent. While he could be tough and hard-charging, she epitomized style and grace. Together, they were a formidable pair," said Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who got to know the Johnsons when her husband was a senator.

Former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby called her "the nearest thing to a saint I've ever known."

Many remembered Johnson for her work for civil rights and social progress during the turbulent 1960s.

"Lady Bird Johnson was a beloved First Lady and an American treasure," President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton said in a joint statement. "Every American owes her a debt of gratitude because it was her devotion to the environment that brought us the Beautification Act of 1965 ... and because she supported President Johnson's fights for civil rights and against poverty. Lady Bird was a strong woman who inspired her daughters and other young women to develop and speak their minds."

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Johnson was one of the nation's first environmentalists, decades ahead of her time.

"She understood that beautifying the nation was about more than simple aesthetics, but also quality of life — in both urban and rural areas, and for both the rich and the poor," Pelosi said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered flags at half staff in memory of Johnson.

"She inspired generations of Americans with her graceful strength, unwavering commitment to family and keen sense of social justice," Perry said. "Her unflagging efforts to beautify our highways and byways are a lasting legacy, through which our state will forever bear the unmistakable signature of a genuine Texan. We are proud to have known her and, like all Texans, are the better for it."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locked