Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museumis releasing never-before-seen love letters written by the former president and his soon-to-be bride.
Regina Greenwell is the senior archivist at the LBJ Library. She says the letters paint a picture of a 26-year-old Lyndon Johnson who made up his mind about Claudia Taylor – then known as “Bird” – on their first date.
“The story goes is that he asked her to marry him on that first date,” Greenwell says. “Clearly from the very beginning, he is pressuring her to marry him as soon as possible, he doesn’t want to wait. She is clearly in love with him, but is a little more cautious about it.”
The letters span the couple’s ten-week courtship. LBJ and the woman who would come to be known as Lady Bird married on November 17, 1934.
The collection will be on display at the Library on the UT campus and on the Library’s website.
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