Lyndon B. Johnson

36th President of the United States

### Siblings

Sam Houston Johnson (brother), Rebekah Johnson (sister), Josefa Johnson (sister), Lucia Johnson (sister)

### Education

Southwest Texas State Teachers College (BS)Georgetown University

### Hair Color

Dark brown

In the 1960 campaign, **Lyndon B. Johnson** was elected Vice President as John F. Kennedy’s running mate. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as the 36th United States President, with a vision to build “A Great Society” for the American people.

*The Presidency of Lyndon B Johnson spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Cold War Era and the age of the Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race. President Lyndon B Johnson represented the Democratic political party which influenced the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency. The vision of LBJ was Great Society, a glorious America with a more equal society.*

## Biography

“A Great Society” for the American people and their fellow men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most extensive legislative programs in the Nation’s history. Maintaining collective security, he carried on the rapidly growing struggle to restrain Communist encroachment in Vietnam.

Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas, not far from Johnson City, which his family had helped settle. He felt the pinch of rural poverty as he grew up, working his way through Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos); he learned compassion for the poverty of others when he taught students of Mexican descent.

In 1937 he campaigned successfully for the House of Representatives on a New Deal platform, effectively aided by his wife, the former Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor, whom he had married in 1934.

During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures.

In the 1960 campaign, Johnson, as John F. Kennedy’s running mate, was elected Vice President. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as President.

First he obtained enactment of the measures President Kennedy had been urging at the time of his death–a new civil rights bill and a tax cut. Next he urged the Nation “to build a great society, a place where the meaning of man’s life matches the marvels of man’s labor.” In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had the widest popular margin in American history–more than 15,000,000 votes.

The Great Society program became Johnson’s agenda for Congress in January 1965: aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Congress, at times augmenting or amending, rapidly enacted Johnson’s recommendations. Millions of elderly people found succor through the 1965 Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.

Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space in a program he had championed since its start. When three astronauts successfully orbited the moon in December 1968, Johnson congratulated them: “You’ve taken … all of us, all over the world, into a new era. . . . ”

Nevertheless, two overriding crises had been gaining momentum since 1965. Despite the beginning of new antipoverty and anti-discrimination programs, unrest and rioting in black ghettos troubled the Nation. President Johnson steadily exerted his influence against segregation and on behalf of law and order, but there was no early solution.

The other crisis arose from Viet Nam. Despite Johnson’s efforts to end Communist aggression and achieve a settlement, fighting continued. Controversy over the war had become acute by the end of March 1968, when he limited the bombing of North Vietnam in order to initiate negotiations. At the same time, he startled the world by withdrawing as a candidate for re-election so that he might devote his full efforts, unimpeded by politics, to the quest for peace.

When he left office, peace talks were under way; he did not live to see them successful, but died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973.

## Personality

The character traits of President Lyndon B Johnson can be described as  ambitious, stubborn, ruthless, forceful, competitive and highly ambitious. It has been speculated that the Myers-Briggs personality type for Lyndon B Johnson is an ESTP (introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving). An outgoing, active, influential and resourceful character with the ability to improvise to achieve desired results. Lyndon B Johnson Personality type: Socially sophisticated, persuasive, competitive and easily bored

## Nicknames

* "LBJ"
* "Bull Johnson"
* "Landslide Johnson"
* "Light-Bulb Lyndon"

*Meaning: The nickname of President Lyndon B Johnson provides an insight into how the man was viewed by the American public during his presidency. The meaning of the Lyndon Johnson nickname "Light-Bulb Lyndon" refers, was not due to amazing ideas, but to his obsession for saving electricity which led him to storm around the White House to turn off unnecessary lights.*

## Inaugurations

### First Inauguration

The first inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson as the 36th president of the United States was held on Friday, November 22, 1963, aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy earlier that day. The inauguration – the eighth non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to ever take place – marked the commencement of the first term (a partial term of 1 year, 59 days) of Lyndon B. Johnson as president. For the inauguration twenty-seven people squeezed into the 12-by-15-foot stateroom of Air Force One for the proceedings. Adding to the discomfort was the lack of air conditioning as the aircraft had been disconnected from the external power supply, in order to take off promptly. As the inauguration proceeded the four jet engines of Air Force One were being powered up.

The swearing-in ceremony administered by Judge Hughes in an Air Force One conference room represented the first and so far only time that a woman administered the presidential oath of office as well as the only time it was conducted on an airplane. Instead of the usual Bible, Johnson was sworn in upon a missal found on a side table in Kennedy's Air Force One bedroom which was accidentally mistaken for a Bible (Johnson was not Catholic). After the oath had been taken, Johnson kissed his wife on the forehead. Mrs. Johnson then took Jackie Kennedy's hand and told her, "The whole nation mourns your husband." The famous photograph of the inauguration was taken by Cecil Stoughton, John F. Kennedy's official photographer. On Stoughton's suggestion Johnson was flanked by his wife and Jacqueline Kennedy, facing slightly away from the camera so that blood stains on her pink Chanel suit would not be visible. The photograph was taken using a Hasselblad camera. The inauguration was sound recorded by White House Press Secretary Malcolm Kilduff using Air Force One's Dictaphone.

### Second Inauguration

The second inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson as president of the United States was held on Wednesday, January 20, 1965, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 45th inauguration and marked the second and only full term of Lyndon B. Johnson as president and the only term of Hubert Humphrey as vice president. Chief Justice Earl Warren administered the oath of office. Lady Bird Johnson founded the tradition of incoming first ladies participating in the ceremony by holding the sworn-in president's Bible. Vice President Humphrey was sworn-in by John W. McCormack, the speaker of the House of Representatives. This was the first inauguration when the president rode in a bulletproof limousine.

An estimated 1.2 million attended the inauguration, the third largest crowd for any event ever held at the National Mall, behind the inaugurations of Truman in 1949 and Obama in 2009. This was the last time an inauguration was covered by newsreels.

## Famous Films

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* **The Sound of Music**
* The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
* Planet of the Apes (1968)
* It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
* Batman (1966)
* Once Upon a Time in the West
* Dr. Strangelove
* Rosemary's Baby
* The Graduate
* Goldfinger
* Night of the Living Dead
* Bonnie and Clyde
* Cool Hand Luke
* The Sword in the Stone
* Mary Poppins
* The Jungle Book

## Accomplishments and major events

*The major accomplishments and the main events that occurred during the time that Lyndon B Johnson was president included the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed and the Selma March led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The nation also saw the Watts Riots and the rise of the Black Power movement. The first US combat troops were sent to fight in the Vietnam War in March 1965. The younger generation found a voice and the Hippie Counterculture, the Hare Krishna movement and Beatlemania hit America.*

**The Cold War (1945 - 1991)**

Summary: The Cold War (1945 - 1991) was a 'war of words'  involving the Cold War Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race involving the nuclear build-up between the USA and the West and the Communist countries dominated by the USSR and China in the East. Lyndon B Johnson was one of the nine US Presidents who were in office during the dangerous period in history known as the Cold War in which the US adopted the policy of Containment to restrict the spread of communism abroad.

**The Vietnam War (1955 - 1975)**

Summary: The Vietnam War (November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975) between communist North Vietnam and the Viet Cong communist guerrillas (backed by China and the USSR) against the non-communist South Vietnam (supported by US military aid and involvement). There were four US presidents during the Vietnam War: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon  The first US combat troops were sent to Vietnam in March 1965 and left in August 1973.

**The Clean Air Act (1963)**

Summary: The Clean Air Act was authorized by Lyndon B Johnson establishing funding for the the research and clean-up of air pollution.

**The Civil Rights Act of 1964**

Summary: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, ending the power of the Jim Crow laws racial segregation and discrimination. The act "remains one of the most significant legislative achievements in American history". The legislation was proposed by President John F. Kennedy in June 1963, but it was opposed by filibuster in the Senate. After Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the bill forward. The United States House of Representatives passed the bill on February 10, 1964, and after a 72-day filibuster, it passed the United States Senate on June 19, 1964. The final vote was 290–130 in the House of Representatives and 73–27 in the Senate. After the House agreed to a subsequent Senate amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Johnson at the White House on July 2, 1964.

**The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)**

Summary: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)  was created under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to investigate charges of unlawful employment practices and try to reach voluntary settlements through conciliation.

**The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964)**

Summary: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed on August 10, 1964, giving President Lyndon B Johnson a free hand to escalate the war in Vietnam. The resolution followed the attack by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the American destroyer USS Maddox on August 2, 1964 and another attack on the USS Turner Joy on 4 August 1964.

**The Hippie Counterculture (1964-1972)**

Summary: The Hippie Counterculture (1964-1972) brought in the era of Flower Power, hippies and the student movement who began to openly criticize and reject conventional values, the existing political and social system during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.

**The Hare Krishna movement**

Summary: The Hare Krishna movement emerged during the Hippie Counterculture as young people rejected materialism and embraced spirituality. The Hare Krishna cult was based on an Indian Hindu sect and worshipped the Hindu god Krishna and emulated the style of worship, dress, diet and lifestyle of its followers in India.

**Beatlemania**

Summary: The British pop group, the Beatles, arrived at New York's JFK airport on February 7, 1964 and Beatlemania spread to the United States during the presidency of Lyndon B Johnson.

**The Great Society (1965)**

Summary: The Great Society was the vision of LBJ  expressed in his State of the Union address on January 7, 1965. It encompassed his domestic policy with new programs to help disadvantaged Americans and to realize his vision of a glorious America with a more perfect and equitable society. To realize his vision of a Great Society President Lyndon B Johnson passed numerous legislation between 1963-1968 for new programs in relation to Education, Health and Welfare (Medicare and Medicaid), Housing, Environmental and Consumer Protection. The Office of Economic Opportunity were established by Lyndon B Johnson to fight the "War on Poverty".

**Assassination of Malcolm X**

Summary: Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds in Manhattan, New York City on February 21, 1965 at age 39. While preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, Malcolm X was shot multiple times and killed. Three members of the Nation of Islam—Muhammad Abdul Aziz, Khalil Islam, and Thomas Hagan—were charged, tried, and convicted of the murder and given indeterminate life sentences, but in November 2021, Aziz and Islam were exonerated.

Speculation about the assassination and whether it was conceived or aided by leading or additional members of the Nation, or by law enforcement agencies, has persisted for decades after the shooting. The assassination was one of four major assassinations of the 1960s in the United States, coming two years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, and three years before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

**The Sound of the Music (1965)**

Summary: The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise from a screenplay written by Ernest Lehman, and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, with Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, and Eleanor Parker. The film is an adaptation of the 1959 stage musical, composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Lindsay and Crouse. Based on the 1949 memoir *The Story of the Trapp Family Singers* by Maria von Trapp, the film is set in Salzburg, Austria and is a fictional retelling of her experiences as governess to seven children, her eventual marriage with their father Captain Georg Von Trapp, and their escape during the Anschluss in 1938.

By November 1966, *The Sound of Music* had become the highest-grossing film of all-time—surpassing *Gone with the Wind*—and held that distinction for five years. The film was just as popular throughout the world, breaking previous box-office records in twenty-nine countries. Following an initial theatrical release that lasted four and a half years, and two successful re-releases, the film sold 283 million admissions worldwide and earned a total worldwide gross of $286 million.

*The Sound of Music* received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Wise's second pair of both awards, the first being from the 1961 film *West Side Story*. The film also received two Golden Globe Awards, for Best Motion Picture and Best Actress, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical. In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) listed *The Sound of Music* as the fifty-fifth greatest American film of all time, and the fourth-greatest film musical. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

**The Selma March (March 1965)**

Summary: The Selma March was a series of three freedom marches in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama as part of the Voting Rights Movement. The first Selma march on March 7, 1965 was met with violence and hostility. The extensive media coverage of the first Selma March, which became known as "Bloody Sunday", resulted in support for the marchers across the country.

**The Voting Rights Act of 1965**

Summary: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965 to prevent discrimination and protect voting rights.

**The Watts Riots (1965)**

Summary: The Watts Riots (August 11, 1965 - August 17, 1965) erupted in an African American neighborhood in Los Angeles during the presidency of Lyndon B Johnson. The intensity and violence and  of the Watts Riots shocked the nation and resulted in resulted in 34 deaths, over 1,000 injuries and the destruction of property valued at $45 million.

**The National Organization for Women (NOW): 1966**

Summary: The National Organization for Women was established in 1966 by Betty Friedan to promote equal rights and equality of opportunity.

**My Lai Massacre (1968)**

Summary: The My Lai Massacre took place on March 16, 1968 and involved the mass killing of unarmed Vietnamese people by American troops. The My Lai Massacre was a turning point in the public perception of the Vietnam War.

**The Tet Offensive (1968)**

Summary: The Tet Offensive (January 30, 1968 - September 23, 1968) was a massive surprise attack, launched by the communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong guerrilla forces.  The North Vietnamese gained a massive psychological victory,   contradicting optimistic claims by the U.S. government, Lyndon B Johnson and the US military that the Vietnam War was all but over.

**Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.**

Summary: Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m. He was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful. Ray died in prison in 1998.

The King family and others believe that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, the mafia, and Memphis police, as alleged by Loyd Jowers in 1993. They believe that Ray was a scapegoat. In 1999, the family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Jowers for the sum of $10 million. During closing arguments, their attorney asked the jury to award damages of $100, to make the point that "it was not about the money". During the trial, both sides presented evidence alleging a government conspiracy. The accused government agencies could not defend themselves or respond because they were not named as defendants. Based on the evidence, the jury concluded that Jowers and others were "part of a conspiracy to kill King" and awarded the family the symbolic $100 they requested in damages. The allegations and the finding of the Memphis jury were later disputed by the United States Department of Justice in 2000 due to perceived lack of evidence.

The assassination was one of four major assassinations of the 1960s in the United States, coming several years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and two months before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968.

**Civil Rights Act of 1968**

Summary: The Civil Rights Act of 1968 is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots.

Titles II through VII comprise the **Indian Civil Rights Act**, which applies to the Native American tribes of the United States and makes many but not all of the guarantees of the U.S. Bill of Rights applicable within the tribes. (That Act appears today in Title 25, sections 1301 to 1303 of the United States Code). Titles VIII and IX are commonly known as the **Fair Housing Act**, which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (this is different legislation than the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, which expanded housing funding programs). While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibited discrimination in housing, there were no federal enforcement provisions. The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, sex. Since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children. Pregnant women are also protected from illegal discrimination because they have been given familial status with their unborn child being the other family member. Victims of discrimination may use both the 1968 act and the 1866 act's section 1983 to seek redress. The 1968 act provides for federal solutions while the 1866 act provides for private solutions (i.e., civil suits). The act also made it a federal crime to "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone... by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin, handicap or familial status." Title X, commonly known as the **Anti-Riot Act**, makes it a felony to "travel in interstate commerce...with the intent to incite, promote, encourage, participate in and carry on a riot." That provision has been criticized for "equating organized political protest with organized violence."

**Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy**

Summary: On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California and pronounced dead the following day. Kennedy, a United States senator and a leading candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries, won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4. He addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Ballroom. After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital nearly 25 hours later. His body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sirhan, a Palestinian who held strong anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs, testified in 1969 that he killed Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought"; he was convicted and sentenced to death. Due to *People v. Anderson*, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 with a possibility of parole. His parole request has been denied numerous times.

Kennedy's assassination prompted the Secret Service to protect presidential candidates. Additionally, it led to several conspiracy theories. It was the final of four major assassinations in the United States that occurred during the 1960s.

## Post Presidency

After leaving the presidency in January 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, accompanied by former aide and speechwriter Harry J. Middleton, who would draft Johnson's first book, *The Choices We Face,* and work with him on his memoirs, *The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969,* published in 1971. That year, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum opened on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. He donated his Texas ranch in his will to the public to form the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, with the provision that the ranch "remain a working ranch and not become a sterile relic of the past".

Johnson gave Nixon high grades in foreign policy, but worried that his successor was being pressured into removing U.S. forces from South Vietnam before the South Vietnamese were able to defend themselves. "If the South falls to the Communists, we can have a serious backlash here at home," he warned.

During the 1972 presidential election, Johnson only reluctantly endorsed Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, a senator from South Dakota; McGovern had long opposed Johnson's foreign and defense policies. The McGovern nomination and platform dismayed him. Nixon could be defeated, Johnson insisted, "if only the Democrats don't go too far left". Johnson felt Edmund Muskie would be more likely to defeat Nixon; however, he declined an invitation to try to stop McGovern receiving the nomination as he felt his unpopularity within the Democratic Party was such that anything he said was more likely to help McGovern. Johnson's protégé John Connally had served as President Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury and then stepped down to head "Democrats for Nixon", a group funded by Republicans. It was the first time that Connally and Johnson were on opposite sides of a general election campaign.

### Failing health

In March 1970, Johnson suffered an attack of angina and was taken to Brooke Army General Hospital in San Antonio. He had gained more than 25 pounds (11 kg) since leaving the White House; he now weighed around 235 pounds (107 kg) and was urged to lose considerable weight. Johnson had also resumed smoking, having not smoked since his near-fatal heart attack in July 1955. The following summer, again gripped by chronic chest pains, he lost 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in less than a month on a crash diet.

In April 1972, Johnson had another heart attack while visiting his daughter, Lynda, in Virginia. "I'm hurting real bad", he confided to friends. The chest pains returned nearly every afternoon ‍—‌ sharp, jolting pains that left him frightened and breathless. A portable oxygen tank was kept by his bed, and he periodically interrupted what he was doing to lie down and don the mask. He continued to smoke heavily and, although nominally on a low-calorie, low-cholesterol diet, kept to it only intermittently. Meanwhile, he began to experience severe abdominal pains, diagnosed as diverticulosis. His heart condition rapidly worsened and surgery was recommended. Johnson flew to Houston to consult with heart specialist Michael DeBakey, where he learned his condition was terminal. DeBakey found that despite two of Johnson's coronary arteries being in urgent need of a coronary bypass, the former president's heart was in such poor condition that he likely would have perished during surgery.

## Death

Johnson recorded an hour-long television interview with newsman Walter Cronkite at his ranch on January 12, 1973, in which he discussed his legacy, particularly about the civil rights movement. He was still smoking heavily, and told Cronkite that it was better for his heart "to smoke than to be nervous".

Ten days later, at approximately 3:39 p.m. Central Time on January 22, 1973, Johnson suffered his final heart attack in his bedroom. During his attack, he managed to telephone the Secret Service agents on the ranch, who found him still holding the telephone receiver, unconscious and "appear[ing] to be dead". They attempted resuscitation, and Johnson was airlifted in one of his planes to San Antonio International Airport, en route to Brooke Army Medical Center. However, cardiologist and Army colonel George McGranahan pronounced him dead on arrival at the airport at 4:33 p.m. Johnson was 64.

Shortly after the former president was pronounced dead, Johnson's press secretary Tom Johnson telephoned Cronkite to tell him the news. Cronkite was anchoring *The CBS Evening News* live at the moment Johnson reached him, which enabled him to report on President Johnson's death as he received direct information from his press secretary. Nixon mentioned Johnson's death in a speech he gave the day after Johnson died, announcing the peace agreement to end the Vietnam War.

After lying in repose at his presidential library, Johnson was honored with a state funeral in which Texas Congressman J. J. Pickle and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk eulogized him when he lay in state at the Capitol. The funeral took place on January 25 at the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., where he had often worshiped as president. The service was presided over by President Richard Nixon and attended by foreign dignitaries, led by Eisaku Satō, who had served as Japanese prime minister during Johnson's presidency. Eulogies were given by George Davis, the church's pastor, and W. Marvin Watson, Johnson's last Postmaster General and a longtime advisor.

Johnson was buried in his family's private cemetery a few yards from the house in which he was born. Eulogies were given by former Texas governor Connally and Billy Graham, the minister who officiated at the burial rites. The state funeral, the last for a president until Richard Nixon's in 1994, was part of an unexpectedly busy week in Washington, beginning with Richard Nixon's second inauguration following the 1972 election. As Johnson died only two days after the inauguration, the remainder of the ceremonies surrounding the inauguration were cancelled to allow for a full state funeral, and many of the military men who participated in the inauguration took part in the funeral. It also meant that Johnson's casket traveled the entire length of the Capitol, entering through the Senate wing when taken into the Rotunda to lie in state and exiting through the House wing steps due to inauguration construction on the East Front steps.

## Facts and trivia

* Lyndon B. Johnson is one of four people in American History to serve as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, Vice President, and President.
* Johnson shares the title of tallest President with Abraham Lincoln, both standing at 6'4''.
* Johnson was born near Stonewall, Texas, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. The nearby small town of Johnson City, Texas, was named after LBJ's father's cousin, James Polk Johnson, whose forebears had moved west from Georgia.
* Johnson had English-Irish, German, and Ulster Scots ancestry. Through his mother, he was a great-grandson of pioneer Baptist clergyman George Washington Baines, who pastored eight churches in Texas, as well as others in Arkansas and Louisiana. Baines was also the president of Baylor University during the American Civil War.
* Johnson's grandfather, Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr., was raised as a Baptist and for a time was a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In his later years, the grandfather became a Christadelphian; Johnson's father also joined the Christadelphian Church toward the end of his life. Later, as a politician, Johnson was influenced in his positive attitude toward Jews by the religious beliefs that his family, especially his grandfather, had shared with him. Johnson's favorite Bible verse came from the King James Version of Isaiah 1:18. "Come now, and let us reason together ..."
* In school, Johnson was a talkative youth who was elected president of his 11th-grade class. He graduated in 1924 from Johnson City High School, where he participated in public speaking, debate, and baseball. At the age of 15, Johnson was the youngest member of his class.
* A friend in Austin introduced her Johnson to his future wife Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor. Lady Bird recalled having felt "like a moth drawn to a flame". Biographer Randall B. Woods attributed Johnson's "neglect of his legal studies" to his courting of Lady Bird. On their first date, at the Driskill Hotel, Lyndon proposed. Lady Bird did not want to rush into marriage, but he was persistent and did not want to wait. Ten weeks later, Lady Bird accepted his proposal. The couple married on November 17, 1934, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas.
* After Lady Bird Johnson suffered three miscarriages, the couple had two daughters together: Lynda Bird (born 1944) and Luci Baines (born 1947). The couple and their two daughters all shared the initials LBJ. Their daughters lived in the White House during their teenage years, under close scrutiny of the media.
* Johnson engaged in numerous extramarital affairs, including a 1937 affair with Alice Glass, his wife's college classmate. When people mentioned Kennedy's many affairs, Johnson would bang the table and declare that he had more women by accident than Kennedy ever had on purpose. Johnson was even alleged to have fathered a son with his long-term mistress Madeleine Brown.
* Johnson worked as a high school teacher and a congressional aide before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937.
* In 1960 Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination for president. During the convention he came into conflict with the Democratic front-runner, fellow senator John F. Kennedy. The two men compromised and the Kennedy-Johnson ticket won in the 1960 presidential election.
* On November 22, 1963, two hours after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Johnson was sworn in by a female judge aboard Air Force One, making him the first president to be sworn in by a woman.
* Johnson was rumored to have been involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.
* While in office, Johnson promoted Civil Rights, Public Broadcasting, Medicare/Medicaid, and Environmental Protection Legislation.
* In 1964, Johnson was reelected to a full term, winning by the largest percentage of the popular vote in American history.
* According to biographer Randall Woods, Johnson posed in many different roles. Depending on the circumstances, he could be: "Johnson the Son of the Tenant Farmer, Johnson the Great Compromiser, Johnson the All-Knowing, Johnson the Humble, Johnson the Warrior, Johnson the Dove, Johnson the Romantic, Johnson the Hard-Headed Pragmatist, Johnson the Preserver of Traditions, Johnson the Crusader for Social Justice, Johnson the Magnanimous, Johnson the Vindictive or Johnson the Uncouth, LBJ the Hick, Lyndon the Satyr, and Johnson the Usurper"
* Johnson was often seen as a wildly ambitious, tireless, and imposing figure who was ruthlessly effective at getting legislation passed. He worked 18- to 20-hour days without break and was absent of any leisure activities.
* In March 1970, Johnson suffered an attack of angina and was taken to Brooke Army General Hospital in San Antonio. He had gained more than 25 pounds (11 kg) since leaving the White House; he now weighed around 235 pounds (107 kg) and was urged to lose considerable weight. He had also resumed smoking after nearly 15 years of not smoking. The following summer, again gripped by chest pains, he lost 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in less than a month on a crash diet.
* In April 1972, Johnson had a second heart attack while visiting his daughter, Lynda, in Virginia. "I'm hurting real bad", he confided to friends. The chest pains returned nearly every afternoon‍—‌a series of sharp, jolting pains that left him frightened and breathless. A portable oxygen tank was kept by his bed, and he periodically interrupted what he was doing to lie down and don the mask. He continued to smoke heavily and, although nominally living on a low-calorie, low-cholesterol diet, kept to it only intermittently.
* Johnson recorded an hour-long television interview with newsman Walter Cronkite at his ranch on January 12, 1973, in which he discussed his legacy, particularly about the civil rights movement. He was still smoking heavily at the time, and told Cronkite that it was better for his heart "to smoke than to be nervous"
* Johnson is one of the most controversial presidents in American history; public opinion of his legacy has continuously evolved since his death. Historians and scholars rank Johnson in the upper tier because of his domestic policies; his administration passed many major laws that made serious advancements in civil rights, health care, and welfare, although he is criticized for escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War.