1st lady of wildflowers

The interstate highway system was built largely during the Eisenhower administration, and the billboard industry had been booming ever since. In 1958, Congress had passed a highway bill that gave states an extra half percent in funding if they controlled billboards, but the incentive appeared ineffectual in stopping highways from being blanketed with billboards.

Lady Bird wanted the highways clear of billboards and junkyards, and filled with green landscaping and wildflowers.

"Public feeling is going to bring about regulation," she told reporters, "so you don't have a solid diet of billboards on all the roads."

The power of the billboard industry, however, was a tough match for the White House and the battle to pass the Highway Beautification Act was fierce.

President Johnson told his cabinet and staff members "You know I love that woman and she wants that Highway Beautification Act" he said, when it looked as if the bill might not pass, and "by God, we're going to get it for her," he said.

The eventual bill was a compromise between the White House and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. It stated that billboards would be banned "except in those areas of commercial and industrial use." Further pressure from the industry caused an additional amendment that required the government to provide "just compensation" to owners for losing their billboards.

As a child I was thrilled that a human being could have a name like Lady Bird. (thinking Texas must be a magical land that produced such strangeness)
- L.M. 7-12-2007 6:59 am [add a comment]

Contrary to popular belief, this famous Texas lady did not have sisters named Ura or Sheza.
- tom moody 7-12-2007 7:56 am [add a comment]

OK I will revise that to 'Texas must be a hilarious land that produces such strangeness'.
- L.M. 7-12-2007 8:00 am [add a comment]