Lyndon B. Johnson​

The creator of the Great Society.

LBJ's Life Before Presidency

              Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on 8/27/1908 in Stonewall, Texas.  His parents were Sam Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Johnson.  
​            He moved to Johnson City at a young age and lived there until he went to California for a while before attending college at Southwest State Teachers College (Now called Texas State University - San Marcos) before he left for a year to teach at a school for disadvantaged Mexican-Americans.  He then finished college before becoming involved with the government.
             He then later became involved in the government when he became a secretary for a member of the House of Representatives, and went to a law school a few years later to pursue higher levels in politics.  He soon became part of many government groups like the NYA and the Senate.
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LBJ's Life after Presidency

         After LBJ decided to not run for president again, he lived at his ranch in Stonewall, and worked on his memoirs.  He then died in 1/22/1973 due to a heart attack.

​Family Information

           LBJ's wife was "Lady Bird" Johnson (Claudia Alta Johnson) and his children were Luci and Lynda Johnson.  He and his wife tried to make all of their children (even their dogs) initials LBJ.  LBJ met Lady Bird when he was coming back from law school and they got married 2 months later.
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My Tribute Plan

            The Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial will be located in Stonewall, Texas, his birth and death place
           It will be 150 feet long and 200 feet wide,  It is mostly a field with a large statue in the center, a road in the back, and a model of the plane he became president on that sits on the road.  
           The plane will be made of marble and glass, and the statue will be made of glass.  The plane is supposed to represent his achievements and his troubles, the marble being the achievements and the glass being the troubles.  The statue is set on top of a square cube of marble.  I believe that the people should be able to enter the plane and learn about him inside.  
​           There will be a marble square on each side of the statue will two of his famous quotes: “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” and “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles that must be taken one step at a time.”

LBJ's presidency

            When JFK died, LBJ became president because he was vice-president.  This is special because he became president while on a plane, which is a first for presidents.  
            He quickly started a program --called the Great Society-- to help end poverty.  Very similar to the New Deal, the Great Society consisted of many smaller programs that all did different things.  LBJ really wanted to end poverty because he had learned a lot about it when he taught at the Mexican-American school and when he worked as the Texas director of FDR's National Youth Administration (NYA).  
            His second order of business was to end the Vietnam War,  however he wasn't able to do this and in turn was disliked by the citizen of the United States.  Even after six years of sending troops (he was re-elected) he could not end the war, and while he still could have ran for president again, he didn't.  
           

My Online Sources