LADY BIRD JOHNSON

Lady Bird Johnson, known for her steadfast support of Lyndon Johnson, her business acumen, and her political skills, was recently featured on the CNN series, America's First Ladies. 

Kentucky Senator Earle C. Clements and his family were very close friends with the Johnson family and socialized together often.  Senator Clements served as Minority Whip when Senator Johnson was Majority Leader of the Senate.  When Lady Bird Johnson became First Lady, she chose the Clements' daughter, Bess Clements Abell, to serve as White House Social Secretary.

(L-R) Bess Clements Abell, Lady Bird Johnson, Tyler Abell,
Lyndon Abell, Dan Abell, and President Lyndon Johnson

When UK Libraries held the dedication ceremony of the Earle C. Clements Collection in 1978, Lady Bird Johnson offered the major address and spent the evening at Maxwell Place with Otis and Gloria Singletary.  Dr. Singletary served as the first Director of the Jobs Corps in the Johnson Administration and had taught at the University of Texas several years before coming to Kentucky.

I interviewed Lady Bird Johnson in 1976 at the Johnson Library in Austin, Texas for our Earle C. Clements Oral History Collection.  Below is an edited version of what Mrs. Johnson had to share that day.

JOHNSON: Lyndon relied on him [Clements] for solid judgment. Senator Clements was a man who just commanded respect and also liking in the Senate and he and Lyndon made a great team I think. He could appeal to members of the Senate that might be turned off by Lyndon sometimes.  He was a very solid man of wisdom and sage good judgment and Lyndon had great affection for him. They just worked together beautifully. 

When Lyndon had a heart attack in July of '55 it was touch and go. Well, first we didn't know whether he was going to live. Second we didn't know when or whether he would be coming back to the job of Majority Leader which was a terribly demanding job. But one of the first visitors that he began to insist on seeing and just deviling the doctors until they let him see him was Senator Clements who then began to come to the hospital giving Lyndon little resumes of the day or the week in the Senate and who was doing what and how certain programs and bills were faring. Then they would talk about what they could do to make them run better and how they could get the troops lined up better. That went on almost daily, I expect as soon as Lyndon could see visitors. He was in the hospital in Bethesda for six weeks.  I expect that Senator Clements began coming perhaps after the first week or ten days.

BIRDWHISTELL:  Did you feel that their personalities were similar or did their differences complement each other?

JOHNSON: No I did not think they were similar, I thought they complemented each other. Lyndon was more of a driver, more insistent and Senator Clements was more smooth and quiet and diplomatic. Between them they could handle many of the elements of that very diverse body, the Senate.

BIRDWHISTELL:  Was Mr. Johnson generally pleased with Senator Clements' performance?

JOHNSON: You bet he was. He admired him and had respect. They were a good team.

BIRDWHISTELL: Senator Clements has been described by some as a very secretive man and one newspaper article stated that he didn't even like to inform his staff of his whereabouts when he was traveling. Did you find Mr. Clements to be secretive?

JOHNSON: No I didn't. He didn't go around shooting off his mouth all the time (laughter) and he didn't just love to make speeches like some people do but where it was wise, sensible, and desirable to talk, he talked.  I think he was a cautious man.

BIRDWHISTELL:  Senator Clements became involved in Senator Johnson's presidential campaign in 1959 and 1960. Were you around him quite a bit during this time to see his involvement in the campaign?

JOHNSON: Let's see, we went down to Morganfield in 1960, in the course of that.  But the things that I remember about it were not the political but just the home and the community. Their home had a collection of furniture, elegant pretty old stuff from the families down through the years and I just loved the feel of their home. It had family stories and taste and beautiful things and it just spoke of a certain way of life.  One feels that one knows people better after you have been in their home. 

It was very evident in the times that we visited him that Senator Clements had the ability to bring together diverse elements in Kentucky for whatever objective. I remember coming back again in '64 when Lyndon was running for the Presidency and there were about five or six former Governors of Kentucky on the stand.  I'm sure that was all Senator Clements' work getting them all there and, believe me, they had been in knock-down, drag-out situations many times.  The press and all the local people, and even they themselves, were probably astonished to discover that they had all accepted to sit almost side by side on the platform. 

BIRDWHISTELL:  Tell me about getting to know Mrs. Clements and Bess.

JOHNSON: Oh, I knew them from at least the early Senate days.  I watched Bess grow up and I was in their home a good many times in Washington, which was a lovely apartment. A sort of a small version of their home in Morganfield. And it was sort of a custom to go there on Sunday and have lunch with them. There was always Kentucky ham and I would have been disappointed if there hadn't been (laughter) and it was absolutely delicious. 

Senator Clements and Lyndon's conversation would pretty soon start off on a business nature and would make good listening in any case. But likely there would be just the four or five of us.  Bess was often out following her own young life. Then when Bess and Tyler married, Lyndon and I had the great pleasure of hosting a party for them and getting to know a lot of their life-long friends.

BIRDWHISTELL: Did Mrs. Clements seem to enjoy being a political wife in Washington?

JOHNSON: I think she enjoyed her husband and her daughter and handled her job competently. I would not say it was something that she sought or it was not particularly her thing. She was just a lovely, kind person. 

I remember one time, I forget just what it was, but I think maybe my daughter, Lynda, had an impacted wisdom tooth.  I was at home helping Lyndon in the campaign, just the sort of thing that I had to do, and I called back and Mrs. Clements took Lynda to the doctor.  She was just so kind to her and tended to her all day long. Another time when Lynda was, I guess, fourteen and another little girl came up from Texas to see her.  Mrs. Clements packed a good picnic lunch and we all went to the beach together. It was her treat and it was very sweet.

BIRDWHISTELL:  Bess Clements Abell became your social secretary in the White House. How did you decide on her as your secretary?

JOHNSON: Oh, gosh, I'm so glad I did. (laughter)  Actually, she had been with me in the Vice- Presidency. So she came with me in January of '61 and was with me in those two years and nine months thereabouts. And I think perhaps it was partly Lyndon and Liz Carpenter may have had a few words to say about it. It just seemed to be a good thing to do because she had the right blend of quiet competence and aggressive persistence and creative talents too, the last in marked degree.

BIRDWHISTELL: Did Bess resemble her father in style and manner?

JOHNSON: To some extent I would say yes. She did because she could always get me to do a lot of work (laughter) and yet she went about it very quietly and calmly.  She could take no for an answer but not without making several other attempts to get yes!

It seems I've talked mostly about work and that was the constant pattern of their lives. Both Lyndon and Senator Clements. But I might say just one or two other things. Senator Clements did have fun and did take us with him sometimes to have fun. Specifically, he liked to go out and watch the harness races at Rosecroft.  Every now and then, say two or three nights during the summer, he would take us out to Rosecroft where we would order dinner and then watch the harness races.  There would always be some other members of the Senate and House or the administration sitting close around.

BIRDWHISTELL: Was he very good at picking the horses?

JOHNSON: (laughter) He enjoyed trying. And I had the feeling that his Kentucky raising went with him through life, which I consider a very good thing. I think it's sad when people come to Washington and leave their roots at home.  Indeed he didn't. He kept the flavor of his region and to me in a very attractive way. He really belonged to Kentucky.

Lady Bird Johnson was interviewed October 19, 1976, for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.  Her interview, and other interviews in the Clements Collection, can be found at https://kentuckyoralhistory.org.