{LBJ's} 'Texas White House' will be turned over to public (AP/CNN) [View All]

STONEWALL, Texas (AP) -- Shaded by a massive 400-year-old oak tree and perched above the rippling waters of the Pedernales River, it was known as the "Texas White House."

President Lyndon Johnson served barbecue to world dignitaries at the ranch in the rolling hill country 70 miles west of Austin, and first lady Lady Bird Johnson lived there for three decades after her husband died.

With her death Wednesday at the age of 94, the National Park Service will soon take over the 4,000 square-foot stone and wood home on the historic LBJ Ranch, near the town of Stonewall.

Lady Bird Johnson is scheduled to be buried next to her husband Sunday in the family's private cemetery less than a mile away from the ranch house. Video Watch how Johnson tried to make U.S. beautiful »

While much of the ranch is already open to the public -- with tours that drive buses through the property and allow visitors to walk up to the cemetery -- the main home was off-limits during Lady Bird Johnson's life.


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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/07/13/johnson.ranch.ap/index.html

I toured the ranch a couple of times, and the first time Lady Bird was sitting out on the porch, a little to the left of the center of the picture. She didn't get up, but her daughter Lucy came out to the bus (leaving a nurse/caretaker behind) and shook hands, answered questions, and posed for photos. Of course, I didn't have a camera.

Consider the inevitable comparison: Someday, Laura, having finished her journey to senility, will be sitting out on the porch with Jenna and not-Jenna, tour busses will pull up outside the proscribed four-mile limit, and the occasional heckler will get through with a bullhorn shouting "George Bush was a MASS MURDERER!!" Of course, anyone with an artificial limb will be considered suspect and not allowed on the bus. Ah, what a pleasant little national monument that will make.