Lady Bird Johnson, who died this week at age 94, was a shy, unassuming woman. But as LBJ’s first lady, she became one of the most powerful environmentalists ever to occupy the White House.
Lady Bird almost single-handedly changed the nation’s landscape in the 1960s through her roadside wildflower program, the forerunner of today’s many highway greenscapes and urban beautification efforts.
Many people forget how ugly, littered and cluttered with billboards U.S. roadways were before Lady Bird began her push for a more scenic landscape. She was the first president’s wife to lobby Congress, and was a driving force behind passage of the 1965 Highway Beautification Act.
“My heart found its home long ago in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth,” Lady Bird wrote a few years ago. “I wanted future generations to be able to savor what I had all my life.”
She left America a more beautiful place. How many public servants can claim as much?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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12 Comments
I remember those “beautify America” signs and also remember the signs set up by local communities like “Rotary Club etc” responsible for cleaning up this section of road.
It got a lot of people motivated.
In Sedgwick county, I see mostly day release inmates in orange jumpsuits picking up trash along the highways. But, I suppose, this is a good thing as well.
Too bad the highway beautification never found its way to Texas. And what about her plans for the big fences around salvage yards. Well, in Texas that never happened either.
The ‘beautify America’ campaign certainly had no effect here in Kansas City.
For one thing, HUGE billboards are going up on the north entry into the city from the international airport along I-29. I think they are the kind with bright LED-like lights that change to different signs. These signs look like gigantic flat screen TV’s. The supports for these monstrosities must cost at least 100.
Then, in north KC, people and businesses put up their own signs.. from real estate agents trying to rent houses or apartments (disguised as individual owners), rug cleaners, all kinds of mortgage signs everywhere, and singles club signs… you name it. These unsightly, garbagy looking signs are usually made of long-lasting plastic and are just placed haphazardly along major streets and roads, along sidewalks and in any grass meridians or on the shoulder of freeway offramps and onramps in or near the vicinity of business districts.
Thow in the ubiquitous fast food litter and what you are left with is one gigantic eyesore. Its pathetic.
Nice try, Ladybird, but you were perhaps 100 years ahead of your time. The cityscapes around KC are uglier than ever.
Too bad the highway beautification never found its way to Texas. And what about her plans for the big fences around salvage yards. Well, in Texas that never happened either.
Posted by: thinkfirst | July 13, 2007 at 07:18 AM
I distinctly remember volunteer signs for cleanup all around San Antonio thinkfirst. Unless they have stopped doing the highway beautification program, I think you need to open your eyes a little wider.
On weekends, on Rock Road in Derby and more than just a few in Mulvane, there are dozens of signs touting new home sales, custom mini blinds, Sprint etc …. most appear to be in the public right of way (the grassy area between the sidewalks and the road — is it a public right of way / easement that prohibits the signs.) They are really an eyesore. The County and Cities don’t seem to have the manpower or desire to remove the signs or ticket the offenders. What are the consequences if a citizen decides to take matters in to their own hands and remove and dispose of the signs?
ken – we get those out west too. I wish the City would collect them and destroy them. Also, they could announce “open season” and make it clear that if I “steal” them all I am doing is picking up litter. I think that might deter them.
If they are in the public right of way would it be stealing to remove them?
Well, excuse me, but I disagree with you about the wildflowers in Texas. What are all those Indian Paintbrushes, Bluebonnets, Black-eyed Susans, Mexican Blankets, Prickly Pear, Prickly Poppies, etc. all over the roadways but wildflowers.
It should be noted that she did more than make “America a more beautiful place”.
The http://www.wildflower.org/ she and Mrs, Helen Hayes founded has helped protect “native plants, natural landscapes, and ecological health”.
The 279 acre site outside of Austin does important research and education re wildflowers.
And she was involved in much more than highway beautification — read her biography at link above.
She was a great lady. You can give her credit because she tryed hard to make Texas beautiful if the people would help by not throwing trash on the highways then the flowers would be more beautiful.
“If they are in the public right of way would it be stealing to remove them?”
No – it is probably illegal for people to put the signs up on public property along right of ways.
I sometimes get out of my car and throw the signs in my trunk for disposal if I get stopped in traffic by such signs and there is time.
For the life of my, I don’t know why the city does not crack down and start fining the businesses that are polluting the public right of ways everywhere you look in this city. But on the contrary, the problem is ignored and not even discusses, as far as I can tell, while new mega-billboards are sprouting in surburban areas.
Capitalism run amok.
Some more info about her,
‘ ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson’s beautiful legacy’http://people.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1329334.php/Lady_bird_Johnsons_beautiful_legacy” “I want Texas to look like Texas, and Vermont to look like Vermont,” she said in a previous interview. “I just hate to see the land homogenized.” “