AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94.
She died at her Austin home of natural causes about 4:20 p.m. Elizabeth Christian, the spokeswoman, said she was surrounded by family and friends.
Lady Bird Johnson returned home late last month after a week at Seton Medical Center, where she'd been admitted for a low-grade fever.
She was hospitalized with a stroke in 2002 that made speaking difficult. But even after that she continued to make public appearances and in May attended an event at the LBJ Library and Museum featuring historian Robert Dallek.
In March, she listened from Texas through a conference call when President Bush signed legislation naming the Education Department headquarters building in Washington, D.C., after her late husband.
The longest-living first lady in history was Bess Truman, who was 97 when she died in 1982.
Other former first ladies remembered Johnson on Wednesday as deeply devoted to her family and the environment.
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Source:
Texas State Flower.
