Medford mail tribune., October 23, 1960, Image 39

Sr &, if-- ll -ZjiS '
With the election of either Henry Cabot
Lodge or Lyndon Baines Johnson as Vice
President of the United States, the country's
Second Lady, as I discovered by visiting recently
with each of the "candidates," will be a woman
of charm, elegance, intelligence, of what used to be
called "breeding," and of an earnest dedication to
her husband's cause.
What more important role could one have than
to be, as Emily Lodge has been, the wife and con
fidante of America's permanent representative to
the United Nations with the rank of Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, the Chairman
of the U. S. delegation to the 11th General As
sembly, U. S. representative in the Security Coun
cil, and a member of President Eisenhower's
cabinet? Only perhaps to be the "wife, confidante,
and active working'partner, as Lady Bird Johnson
has been, of Lyndon B. Johnson, the hard-hitting,
dynamic, indefatigable majority leader pf the U. S.
Senate, whose power on occasion has been de
scribed as second only to that of the President.
Their early influences ill-equipped Lady Bird
Johnson and Emily Lodge for the strenuous de
mands of public life. Mrs. Lodge had been reared
in the Brahmin tradition of keeping one's own
counsel. And Mrs. Johnson, when her mother died
not long before her sixth birthday, lived the lonely
life of a country child brought up by her mother's
intellectual but unworldly maiden sister.
"Aunt Effie," Lady Bird told me, "opened my
mind to books and my spirit to beauty, but she
neglected to give me any insight into the practical
.matters a girl should know about. Something even
as simple as how to match colors was outside my
ken. And so, except for visits to my kinfolk in
Alabama, where I swam with my cousins or had
parties, I had no outside relationships."
- Both Emily Sears and Lady Bird Taylor some
how broke through the cocoon. At 18, Emily Sears
met Henry Cabot Lodge at a dance. "I thought
4
. Family Weekly, October 23, 1960
LADY BIRD JOHNSON
What Kind of Second Lady Would
Cabot looked pretty good," she told me. "We were
married two years later. He was then a Washington
correspondent for the Weto York Herald Tribune,
and being the wife of a newspaperman was my
coming of age." ..
The thawing of Lady Bird Taylor's reserve began
when she was 17 and became friends with Mrs.
Gene Lassater of Henderson, Tex., who arranged
for her to meet some friends and advised her how
to dress. Above all, as Lady Bird puts it, "She
made me feel important for the first time."
Upon her graduation from the University of
Texas, Lady Bird's father gave her a present of a
trip to New York and Washington. Before she left
Texas, Mrs. Lassater gave her a glowing description
of the young secretary of Congressman Richard M.
Kleberg of Texas and suggested that she look him
up while she was in Washington. Lady Bird was
too absorbed by the excitement of seeing new
places to bother about the Congressman's secretary
a man named Lyndon B. Johnson.
Two months later, however, the young secretary
was himself visiting in Texas where, at Mi's. Las
sater's, he met Lady Bird by accident. That
night she and a group of friends joined him at a
party. The next day Lady Bird met him again. A
few weeks later, after a whirlwind courtship
which was disapproved by both his parents and
her Aunt Effie, Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird
Taylor were married. - ,
"Though we have lived happily ever after," she
told me, "I admit I married him with a great deal
of apprehension!"
They're More Dynamic in Person
Both "candidates" for Second Lady seem more
attractive, more vivacious face-to-face than they
do on television or in photographs. Behind Emily
Lodge's dignified demeanor, one detects a tomboy,
pixie quality, a tremendous zest for living that
makes her seem girlish in her 50s. In clothes, tastes,
and hairdress, the accent is on casualness.
"In winter," Mrs. Lodge says, "I prefer sweaters
and skirts or casual straight dresses to anything
else. Blacks, reds, pale pinks are my favorite colors.
I like going without a hat. And-jewelry doesn't
mean much to me. It's a bother to put on. Flowers
in the house, which are much more tempting than
jewels, are my luxury."
Lady Bird Johnson, 48, petite, and a Southern
charmer with chiseled features, gives the impres
sion of being a woman of purpose. And, along with
purpose, there is the magic of color the spell she
creates by choosing bright colors Chinese reds,
i ;
EMILY
or
She Be?
yellows to match the yellow rose of her native
state, and vivid greens to set off her dark, slightly
graying hair and dark skin tone.
In general, her clothes are of two different kinds
for Washington, the required formalities, in
cluding hats and gloves; for the LBJ ranch in
Johnson City, Tex., cotton blouses or sweaters and
skirts. Jewelry she keeps to a dignified minimum
a strand of pearls, a gold bracelet, and almost
always earrings and a gold pin in the form of. a
bird, which is both her namesake and mascot. For,
although christened Claudia Alta, she has been
"Lady Bird" on all but legal documents ever since
a . family maid, enchanted with her as a petite,
dark-eyed youngster, had remarked, "She's as
purty as a little ladybird."
The essence of both the Lodges' and the John
sons' marriages is to let the husband be the leader.
-Ladv Bird SaVS:. "I.VnHnn Qft tUfx nnrtnrn " ITmllii
puts it another way: "I'm a great "follower-along."
When Lyndon Jets Lady Bird know what he
wains, iw eApeuua iter 10 execuie-ir. unce, ior instances-he
announced -that--he- wanted- music- in
everyroom-on- the-Johnsons'-ranch. Lady- Bird
had it piped in. On another occasion he told her
he wanted a new lawn for a party that was to take
place within three weeks. It was. fall then, and to
p
-i. A
W'-:.
LODGE
Bv Flora Rheta Schreiber
have the lawn constructed seemed impossible. Yet
Lady Bird managed, and Lyndon had his wish.
The Johnson marriage gained in depth five years
ago during the Senator's convalescence from a'
heart attack. "At that time he wanted me to laugh
a lot, to be around 24 hours a day, and always to
have lipstick on," she says. "During those days
we rediscovered the meaning and freshness of life."
They Have Private Lives, Too
A family friend says of the Johnsons' marriage:
"They work in close harmony. They are not
demonstrative with each other in the presence of
other people, but there will always be her solicitous
'Darlin', why aren't you taking your nap?' I re
member once when he came home in a lather after
some busy days in Austin and San Antonio. Relax
ing as he stepped into the air-conditioned ranch,
he remarked, 'I want to kiss Mrs. Johnson.' He
looked all over the house until he found her."
Always, as far as her husband's public life has
been concerned, Emily Lodge has preferred to
stay in the background. During the eight years
of his U. N. ambassadorship, however, she has
found herself playing an active role. Fluent in
French because she attended Paris schools, she
has talked easily with diplomats. Much U. N.
-".jar f
I nnn APtnot r-nmninc
Family Weekly
October 23, 1900
Ambassador and Mrs.
Henry Cabot Lodge
diplomacy has been, carried on at parties, some
times two or three a day, and the Lodges also have
' had frequent gatherings of their own.
Famous among U. N. delegates were their "song
fests," at which Ambassador Lodge let go in a
sonorous baritone in any of several languages. "As
for me," says Emily Lodge, "I only clapped."
As to her husband's campaign for the Vice
Presidency, Mrs. Lodge told me she was looking
forward to the traveling, meeting people, the
handshaking, but "I won't make a speech. Won't
is the word. I never have and never will. There's
something ghastly about getting up with your
mouth open while other mouths are closed."
The Lodges, in their marriage, have always
preserved a quiet corner of privacy. "The most
wonderful thing about Cabot," Mrs. Lodge told
me, "is that he is the least boring man. He plays as
hard as he works. He laughs easily and out loud,
and I like that in anybody. Just to hear him sing
makes me happy. He likes Wagner; I prefer Verdi
or Puccini. We even have political arguments, but
he usually convinces me. And though I'm lazy, my
husband makes me walk two miles every night.
He doesn't really make me, but I know that if I
don't go with him,- he'll go without me, and I'd
rather go than be left alone. But I get even by
making him look at the shop windows."
The Johnsons have two teen-age daughters
. Lynda Bird, 16, and Lucy Baines, 13. Lynda is a
student at National Cathedral School, a private
school for girls in Washington. Lady Bird herself
is a member of the school's board and of its PTA.
Lucy-attends a public junior high school.--.
"The girls made their own decision about their
schools," Lady Bird told me. "Lucy preferred a
public school partly out of her philosophy of life
and partly because of the rivalry with her sister
that made her unwilling to be in the same school."
In Texas both girls attend a small country school.
Spending part of their time in Texas and part
(Continued)
Family Weekly, October 23, III60 ;