Inside Lady Bird Johnson’s White House: Recording a Public and Private Life

Lady Bird Johnson is best known today as the wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the USA between 1963-69. However, there was much more to her life than simply the role of ‘First Lady’.

In this episode of Factual America, Matthew Sherwood takes a deep dive into Lady Bird Johnson’s life with Dawn Porter, director of new documentary film, The Lady Bird Diaries.

It’s 1963. Liz Carpenter, Lady Bird’s Press Secretary, suggests that she records her ‘thoughts and experiences’ on a tape recorder. Lady Bird agrees and borrows one from Carpenter’s son. She never looks back. Over the next six years she will record 123 hours-worth of material about her day-to-day life.

As Dawn tells Matthew, Lady Bird’s entries are ‘detailed and meticulous’: she had a degree in journalism and was a very good note taker. She was also, Dawn says, very disciplined, observant, and conscious of her place in history.

This consciousness made Lady Bird an invaluable counsellor for her husband. So much so that in an age where there was no line of presidential succession, Lady Bird was even referred to as ‘Mrs Vice President’.

The Lady Bird Diaries describe Lady Bird as ‘one of the most influential and least understood First Ladies in [American] history’. Matthew and Dawn discuss the detail of why that is so. They also explore her abilities as a strategist, how Lady Bird changed the way the White House works, and her political and public independence even from her husband.

The picture they draw is of a woman who was more than equal to the challenge of the difficult age in which she lived, and which she so carefully recorded. For a fuller picture of Lady Bird, the Johnson White House and 60s America, this episode is a must listen.

Watch the episode at https://factualamerica.com

“She both did and didn’t accept the limit on her authority that society was giving her. She didn’t demand credit for her contributions but didn’t stop making them... her priority was getting things done.” – Dawn Porter