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Claudia Alta Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States (1963–69), as the wife of the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson. Notably well-educated for a woman of her era, she proved a capable manager and a shrewd investor. After marrying LBJ in 1934 when he was a political hopeful in Austin, Texas, she used a modest inheritance to bankroll his congressional campaign, and then ran his office while he served in the navy. Next, she bought a radio station and then a TV station, which soon made them millionaires. As First Lady, she broke new ground by interacting directly with Congress, employing her own press secretary, and making a solo electioneering tour. Johnson was a lifelong advocate for beautifying the nation's cities and highways ("Where flowers bloom, so does hope") and the Highway Beautification Act was informally known as Lady Bird's Bill. She was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian honors. She is a descendant of Rowland Taylor through his grandson Captain Thomas J. Taylor, II. ==Early life== Claudia Alta Taylor was born in Karnack, Texas, a town in Harrison County, near the state's border with Louisiana. Her birthplace was "The Brick House," an antebellum plantation mansion on the outskirts of town, which her father had purchased shortly before her birth.〔(''The Dallas Morning News'', "Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94" ), July 12, 2007〕 She was named for her mother's brother Claud.〔("Vibrant spirit takes Lady Bird from a small town to UT" ). ''The Palm Beach Post''.〕 During her infancy, her nurse, Alice Tittle,〔(Lady Bird Johnson: Her Early Years ). PBS.〕 commented that she was as "purty as a ladybird".〔("Lady Bird Johnson: Final Tribute" )〕〔("Obituary: Lady Bird Johnson" ), BBC news website〕 Opinions differ about whether the name refers to an actual bird or a ladybird beetle.〔 The nickname virtually replaced her actual first name for the rest of her life. Her father and siblings called her Lady,〔(The First Lady Bird ). ''Time''.〕 though her husband called her Bird—the name she used on her marriage license. During her teenage years, her schoolmates had called her Bird, though mockingly, since she reportedly was not fond of the name.〔 Nearly all of her maternal and paternal forebears had arrived in the Virginia Colony during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Her father was a native of Alabama and primarily of English ancestry with some Welsh and Danish ancestry; her mother was also a native of Alabama and of English and Scottish descent. Her father was Thomas Jefferson Taylor (August 29, 1874 – October 22, 1960), a sharecropper's son who became a wealthy businessman and the owner of of cotton and two general stores. "My father was a very strong character, to put it mildly," his daughter once said. "He lived by his own rules. It was a whole feudal way of life, really."〔 Her mother was the former Minnie Lee Pattillo (1874–1918), an opera lover who felt out of place in Karnack and who was often in "poor emotional and physical health."〔 When Lady Bird was five years old, Minnie fell down a flight of stairs while pregnant and died of complications of miscarriage.〔 In a profile of Lady Bird Johnson, ''Time'' magazine described Lady Bird's mother as "a tall, eccentric woman from an old and aristocratic Alabama family, () liked to wear long white dresses and heavy veils (and who ) scandalized people for miles around by entertaining Negroes in her home, and once even started to write a book about Negro religious practices, called Bio Baptism." Her unreconstructed husband, however, tended to see blacks as "hewers of wood and drawers of water," according to his younger son.〔 Lady Bird had two elder brothers, Thomas Jefferson Jr. (1901–1959) and Antonio, also known as Tony (1904–1986). She also had two stepmothers; the second, Ruth Scroggins, married Thomas Taylor in 1937. She was largely raised by her maternal aunt Effie Pattillo, who moved to Karnack after her sister's death. Lady Bird also visited her Pattillo relatives in Autauga County, Alabama, every summer until she was a young woman. As she explained, "Until I was about 20, summertime always meant Alabama to me. With Aunt Effie we would board the train in Marshall and ride to the part of the world that meant watermelon cuttings, picnics at the creek, and a lot of company every Sunday."〔(So Glad, So Glad ). ''Time''. April 3, 1964.〕 According to Lady Bird, her aunt Effie "opened my spirit to beauty, but she neglected to give me any insight into the practical matters a girl should know about, such as how to dress or choose one's friends or learning to dance."〔 Lady Bird was a shy and quiet girl who spent much of her youth alone outdoors. "People always look back at it now and assume it was lonely," she once said about her childhood. "To me it definitely was not. () I spent a lot of time just walking and fishing and swimming." She developed her lifelong love of the environment as a child growing up in the tall pines and bayous of East Texas and watching the wildflowers bloom each spring.〔Wilson, J. "East Texas wildflower." ''Austin American-Statesman''. July 13, 2007. p.2 (Lady Bird Johnson Commemorative Section)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lady Bird Johnson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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