Middle School
Worksheets
A Girl Named Claudia
Have you ever heard the expression cute as a button or cute as a bug? How about pretty as a lady bird? When Claudia Alta Taylor was a little girl, her nursemaid exclaimed, "She's purty as a lady bird!" The nickname stuck with her the rest of her life. Claudia Taylor grew up to become Mrs. "Lady Bird" Johnson, First Lady and wife of the thirty-sixth president of the United States.
Claudia Taylor was born in Karnack, Texas, on December 22, 1912. Her father was a prosperous cotton farmer who had also wisely invested in real estate. When Lady Bird was six years old, her mother died. Her father, her aunt, and family servants raised her and her two brothers. She excelled at school and went on to attend an all-girls junior college. She completed her degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1933 but stayed another year to earn a second degree in journalism. (Journalism is a course of study preparing students for careers in reporting, writing, and editing for newspapers and magazines.) She had plans to become a newspaper reporter, but her plans would soon change.
Claudia's plans and her life changed when she met a congressional aide named Lyndon Baines Johnson. After a whirlwind courtship, they were married on November 17, 1934.
