Lady Bird

A Biography of Mrs. Johnson

By: Jan Jarboe Russell

Narrated by: Andrea Gallo

A revealing biography of Lady Bird Johnson with startling new insights into her marriage to Lyndon Baines Johnson and her unexpectedly strong impact on his presidency.

Long obscured by her husband's shadow, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson emerges in this first comprehensive biography as a figure of surprising influence and the centering force for LBJ, a man who suffered from extreme mood swings and desperately needed someone to help control his darker impulses. Expertly researched and written, Lady Bird draws from rare conversations with the former first lady and from interviews with key members of Johnson's inner circle of friends, family, and advisers.

With chapters such as "Motherless Child", "A Ten-Week Affair", and "LBJ's Midlife Crisis", Lady Bird sheds new light on Mrs. Johnson's childhood, on her amazing acumen as a businesswoman, and on the central role she played in her husband's life and political career. A vital link to the Kennedys during LBJ's uneasy tenure as vice president and a voice of conscience on civil rights, Lady Bird is portrayed here as a political force, strikingly different from the somewhat minor figure depicted in previous works on LBJ. Especially fascinating today, in light of the enormous attention now focused on the private lives of our leaders, are the personal details about her marriage to a man whose extramarital affairs were widely discussed.

In this intimate portrait, Russell shows us the private Lady Bird - not only a passionate conservationist but a remarkable woman who greatly influenced her husband, his administration, and the country.

©1999 Jan Jarboe Russell (P)2015 Recorded Books

An amzing story!

I haven't written any reviews yet, but want to do so with this book about Lady Bird. Told in a pleasant voice (so important) telling the story of Lady Bird's amazing life - what a woman. It brings with it history of her times, the challenges of a difficult marriage and how to survive public office. Wish to find more stories like this one.

Enjoyed

very informative! lots of historical facts and interesting information about Lady Bird and how she grew up. How she handled her husband, how she felt about personal matters in her life.

If you don’t like LBJ or Lady Bird, this book is for you.

Extremely biased statements about Lady Bird Johnson, which makes one wonder if the author isn’t good friends with Robert Caro. Like the Caro books, Lady Bird cannot set one foot forward..according to this author Lady Bird was frugal to the point of being cheap, she was a neglectful mother for her two daughters, the two daughters could not stand one another during the decade of the 1960s, LBJ was horrible to her at all times, she was a manipulative person, her Lady Bird Express campaign through the South was abysmal and she complained about it, and she only came upon beautification projects as they were forced upon her as First Lady. These statements are simply not true, but they are laid out in the book repeatedly. True biographers should provide a balanced look at a person, and not a hatchet job.

Too bad there are not any balanced books on Lady Bird Johnson as of yet (besides her own White House diary which does not give much information prior to or post-Presidential years).

I learned very little about who Lady Bird really was from this book, and felt like I wasted 15 hours to slog through it.

Do not waste an audible credit

Absolutely horrible. It is not a book about Lady Bird Johnson, it’s a book about how much the author disliked Lyndon Johnson!