Jul 13, 2007 12:06 pm US/Central
1st Ceremony For Lady Bird Held At Wildflower Ctr.
AUSTIN (AP) ―
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Lady Bird's beloved Wildflower Center was the constant focus of her attention in later years.
Frank Wolfe (LBJ Library)
Lady Bird Johnson made a final trip Friday to her beloved wildflower center, where friends and family gathered for a memorial service for the former first lady.
About 180 people attended the Eucharist service in a gallery at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Her oak casket, draped in white cloth with blue embroidery, sat in front of a large portrait of Johnson in a field of flowers with a hat. Two vases filled with large floral arrangements featuring bluebells, her favorite flower, flanked the portrait from a table.
The widow of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson died Wednesday.
"We are here to let Lady Bird go and to celebrate her glad release," said the Rev. Stephen Kinney, former rector at Johnson's home church, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg. "This is our time to say goodbye."
The service ended with a song written for Johnson. One of her daughters, Lynda Johnson Robb, watched from the front row, holding a grandchild and swaying to the music and smiling.
Johnson's casket was carried into the wildlife center by a detachment of service members representing every branch of the U.S. military, the only sounds a military officer calling cadence and a light wind rustling the trees and flowers.
Robb and Johnson's other daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, looked toward the ground as the casket passed, then followed it inside.
About 60 family members and many volunteers from the wildlife center were among those at the private service, which was to be followed by other ceremonies Friday and throughout the weekend.
Among her own requests, Johnson asked to be buried next to her husband at the couple's famed Central Texas ranch. She also wanted to follow the same path he did 34 years ago to the LBJ Library and Museum to lie in repose in the same spot where he laid in state in 1973.
Both requests will be carried out this weekend.
Members of the public can visit her casket at the LBJ Library and Museum at the University of Texas, where she will lie in repose from 1:15 p.m. Friday until 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
An invitation-only funeral Saturday will be televised.
Johnson will be buried Sunday next to her husband at the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall.
On Thursday, mourners trickled into the wildflower center to experience the beauty of the blooms Johnson so adored and to offer their condolences by signing a book at the front entrance.
Johnson was an environmentalist devoted to preserving wildflowers and native plants. She founded the center in 1982 on her 70th birthday. She last visited the center in May for its annual fundraising gala.
"Luci and Lynda, her daughters, have often said it was like having another sibling in the family, the wildflower center," said Joe Hammer, a director at the center. "Mrs. Johnson thought of it as one of her children."
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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