Lyndon Baines Johnson and Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor conducted their courtship at breakneck speed. They met in Texas in September 1934 and were engaged by November. The pair was married on Nov. 17, 1934, and remained together until LBJ’s death parted them in 1973.
LBJ, smitten, proposed marriage on their very first date. Lady Bird held back, heeding the voices of her relatives, who counseled caution. In the letter below, dated early November 1934, she wrote to her suitor: “Everybody is so constantly urging me to ‘wait two or three months,’ ‘wait-wait,’ ‘two months isn’t long enough to have known the man you’re to marry.’ ”
Much of their courting took place via mail, as LBJ was in Washington working as a congressional aide, while Lady Bird remained in her hometown (Karnack, Texas). LBJ’s letters were honest and surprisingly sentimental. On Oct. 24, 1934, he wrote to her:
Have been intending to tell you everyday about a little orange comb I carry in my billfold. It is the only thing I have from my little girl at Karnack and when I get lonesome and blue or happy and ambitious I always get pleasure when I look at the little comb and think …just think.
The LBJ Library has just opened a new Web exhibit where you can read more courtship letters between the two Texans.
