Lady Bird Johnson

As fundraising continues for the Gateway to the Hill Country Beautification Project, volunteers of Citizens for Scenic Texas Highways (CSTH) carried a report on its progress to Luci Baines Johnson this month.

The organization has dedicated the community-funded project to the 'Legacy of Lady Bird Johnson,' the former First Lady and Luci's mother. She welcomed Soc Gonzalez, Shannon Heep and Linda Baker to her Central Texas home where they shared information about the groundbreaking Dec. 27 on the two-year project to beautify the intersection that welcomes visitors to Burnet County--US 281 and Texas 71 in Marble Falls.

The site has been called the Gateway to the Hill Country and Highland Lakes Region and described as a “welcome mat” at the threshold of traffic from seasonal visitors from within Texas and from far beyond Texas borders.

Tickets for “Spring Shindig 2016: An LBJ Party at the Texas White House,” are on sale ahead of the April 23 event at the LBJ National Historic Park in Stonewall. The event, scheduled for 6 p.m., will benefit the Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson Endowment, which supports the museum’s exhibits and archives at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum of San Marcos.

The event will be the first fundraiser for the endowment that was created in October last year to honor Lady Bird Johnson’s contributions to her husband’s political career and the nation.

Johnson daughters Luci Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb are the honorary chairs for the event.

“This endowment is a permanent fund, separate from the operating budget, to help the museum preserve the history of the formative years of President Lyndon B. Johnson while he was in college in San Marcos and as a teacher in South Texas,” said Dr. Ed Mihalkanin, museum president.