Our Lady of the highways
Lady Bird Johnson -- the former first lady who died Wednesday -- was a friend to our nation's highways. CNN recounts her efforts to improve the looks of our freeways:
As first lady, Lady Bird created a legacy through her passion for what the press called "beautification" and the legislation it produced. She had the billboards and junkyards banished from the federal highway rights-of-way, and she inspired the carpets of daffodils and tulips that delight tourists who come to the nation's capital. She was more than a gardener. She was one of the first true environmentalists of our times. Even LBJ liked the idea, complaining proudly one day that he had a hell of a time taking a nap because Lady Bird and Laurance Rockefeller and a bunch of other beautification folks down below his bedroom were holding a meeting and talking loud and he could not go to sleep. "She's going to beautify us right out of existence," he said.
The Times' Elaine Woo notes: "Her love of nature was enshrined in law when her husband signed the Highway Beautification Act of 1965. Conceived primarily to restrict junkyards and unsightly signs along the nation's highways, it was the first major legislative campaign launched by a first lady."
