美国第一夫人伯德·约翰逊夫人
美国第一夫人伯德·约翰逊夫人
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伯德·约翰逊夫人Lady Bird Johnson)克劳迪娅·阿尔塔·泰勒Claudia Alta Taylor),(出生于1912年12月22日,美国得克萨斯州卡纳克市-死于2007年7月11日,得克萨斯州奥斯汀),美国第一夫人(1963-69年),林登·约翰逊(Lyndon B. Johnson)的妻子,美国第36任总统和一位环保主义者指出她对美化的重视。

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美国著名面孔:事实还是虚构?

本杰明·富兰克林从未写过书。

富裕的商人托马斯·杰斐逊·泰勒(Thomas Jefferson Taylor)和米妮·帕蒂洛·泰勒(Minnie Patillo Taylor)的女儿,克劳迪娅·阿尔塔·泰勒(Claudia Alta Taylor)在家庭保姆的建议下被昵称为“伯德夫人”。母亲在1918年去世后,伯德夫人由一位阿姨抚养长大,阿姨与家人同住。她的童年很孤独,后来她指出,正是在这些年里,她发展了对读书的热爱和对自然宁静的尊重。她异常聪明,就读当地学校,并在15岁时从高中毕业;后来,她进入了得克萨斯州达拉斯的圣玛丽圣公会女子学校,在那里她追求了写作的兴趣。

她于1930年进入德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校,她享受着许多其他学生买不起的奢侈品,例如她自己的汽车和收费账户,但她已经养成了非常谨慎的消费习惯,这在后来成为她的特点在生活中。在1933年获得历史学学士学位后,她又再获得一年的新闻学学位。她在这一领域的培训帮助她发展了自己的技能,以后将在与新闻界的关系中运用这些技能。

她在1934年夏天遇到了Lyndon Baines Johnson,他几乎立即提出了建议。他们于1934年11月17日在得克萨斯州圣安东尼奥的圣马可主教教堂结婚。几次流产后,伯德夫人生了两个女儿,1944年的琳达·伯德和1947年的露西·贝恩斯。

In 1937 Lady Bird used $10,000 of her inheritance to support Lyndon’s first congressional campaign. After his election, she assisted constituents visiting the capital by showing them the main tourist attractions of the city. In 1941–42, while Lyndon was serving in the military (Lyndon was the first congressman to volunteer for active duty in World War II), she ran his congressional office and further developed her skills at handling his constituents.

In 1943, with more of Lady Bird’s inherited money, the Johnsons purchased a radio station in Austin, and Lady Bird took over as manager. Although it was never clear how much of her ensuing success was due to her own decisions and how much to Lyndon’s political connections or to sheer luck, her interest and expertise were genuine, and she continued to be active in managerial decisions long after the station became profitable.

As her husband’s political career advanced and he became a powerful figure in Washington, D.C., Lady Bird participated in his campaigns but shied away from giving speeches, preferring to shake hands and write letters instead. After taking a course in public speaking in 1959, however, she became an excellent extemporaneous speaker. In 1960, when Lyndon was nominated for vice president on the Democratic ticket with John F. Kennedy, she actively campaigned throughout the South, and Robert Kennedy later said that she had carried Texas for the Democrats.

Lady Bird used the three years of her husband’s vice presidency to hire an expert staff, including Liz Carpenter, a seasoned reporter, who served as both staff director and press secretary. Carpenter helped to portray Lady Bird in the best possible light when, after the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, she faced unfavourable comparisons with her stunning predecessor, Jacqueline Kennedy.

In the election of 1964, Lady Bird campaigned vigorously. Although Lyndon’s strong stand on civil rights had made him a pariah in many parts of the South, she insisted that no state be written off. From her campaign train, dubbed the “Lady Bird Special,” she rode through seven Southern states, urging voters to support her husband.

Following his election, she moved to establish her own record as first lady. She concentrated on Head Start, a program aimed at helping preschool children who were from disadvantaged backgrounds. But she became most closely identified with an environmental program, called “beautification,” that sought to encourage people to make their surroundings more attractive, whether they were wide-open spaces or crowded urban neighbourhoods. To encourage private donations, she formed the First Lady’s Committee for a More Beautiful Capital.

In an attempt to improve the appearance of the nation’s highways, she urged Congress to pass the Highway Beautification Bill, which was strenuously opposed by billboard advertisers. Her involvement in the legislation was highly unusual, and, though she received some criticism, the bill (in diluted form) passed Congress and became law in October 1965.

After Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection in 1968, Lady Bird continued a busy round of official activities but also prepared for retirement in Texas. There she continued the interests that had long sustained her, especially her family and environmental concerns, including the National Wildflower Research Center (now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center). Although she occasionally made political appearances for her son-in-law, Virginia governor (and later senator) Charles Robb, she dedicated most of her time to the family business and her grandchildren.

Early in her White House tenure, she began to record her impressions in daily tape recordings. A fraction of the thousands of hours she taped became the basis of her book, A White House Diary (1970), which was one of the most complete and revealing accounts ever left by a president’s wife.

Following her husband’s death in 1973 she divided her time between the LBJ ranch and her home in Austin. She could take satisfaction in the fact that Americans typically ranked her in the top half dozen of all first ladies.