epiScope

Roanoke native Frank Vest Jr., retired bishop, dies

Roanoke native served as head of Episcopal Diocese of Southern Va. for 7 years
By JEREMY SLAYTON
Richmond Times-Dispatch
April 8, 2008

The Rt. Rev. Frank Harris Vest Jr. was known as a man with a strong faith, kindness and a keen sense of humor.

The Roanoke native and Forest resident incorporated those aspects into his seven-year tenure as bishop of the Norfolk-based Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia.

"He never lost his sense of humor, even in the trying times," said the Rev. Canon Win Lewis, who is canon to the ordinary, or chief pastoral assistant to the bishop, of the Diocese of Southern Virginia.

Mr. Vest, who became bishop of the Southern Virginia diocese in 1991 after two years as bishop coadjutor, died Saturday at Westminster Canterbury in Lynchburg after a brief illness. He was 72.

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+Haines

Former Episcopal Bishop Of Washington Dies At 73

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The former Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Ronald Haines, who ordained a lesbian priest and presided over the marriage of Vice President Al Gore's daughter, has died at age 73.

Church officials say he died at his home from complications with cancer on March 21st.

Haines was an advocate for the ordination of women priests and defended gender equality in the Episcopal church. His ordination of a lesbian, the Reverend Elizabeth Carl, sparked protests.

According to a 1992 article in The Washington Post, one of the bishop's most vocal critics was his wife, Mary, who was vice president of the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life. She even favored her husband's censure, which he narrowly avoided, at a national gathering of bishops.

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Another loss

Retired Episcopal Church bishop Robert Spears dies
Stephanie Veale
Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle
March 19, 2008

Bishop Robert R. Spears Jr., who died Tuesday at the age of 89, was a progressive force in Rochester and on the Episcopal Church's national stage, those who knew him say.

Bishop Spears led the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester from 1970 to 1984. He fought for the ordination of women to the priesthood, a practice that was approved in 1976. He also took up the cause of Rochester's black community during the racial strife of the early 1970s. He advocated for the inclusion of gays and lesbians in church life.

"He was a visionary," said retired priest George Exley-Stiegler, who is with the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Gates and who first met Bishop Spears in 1953. "He was a good, caring pastor of the diocese, with both the lay people and the clergy, and he had a special interest in the young people."

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In the hope of the Resurrection

Frederic Willard McFarland, 14 February 1945- 17 March 2008

Frederic Willard McFarland, 63, of Burlington, New Jersey, died on Monday, 17 March 2008, in Samaritan Hospice at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly, New Jersey, after a courageous struggle with cancer.

Born on 14 February 1945 in Pasadena, California, Mr McFarland's early education was in public schools in the West. He received his BA and MA from the University of Denver, and was a Ford Foundation Fellow. In August 1967, he began a 40-year career with W. W. Norton and Company, the well-known New York publishing firm. He rose through the ranks to become an editor and vice-president.

Frederic McFarland is survived by his beloved wife of 27 years, Cynthia Wilson McFarland, of Burlington; by his mother, Harriett Corbin McFarland, of Phoenix, Arizona; his brother, Scott Corbin McFarland, of Santa Monica, California; a number of nieces and a nephew; and a great company of loving colleagues and friends. Samaritan Hospice provided devoted care to Frederic for the last two weeks of his life.
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In lieu of flowers, kindly remember Frederic through a memorial gift in his name to St Mary's Hall-Doane Academy, 350 Riverbank, Burlington, New Jersey 08016, a private Episcopal preparatory school to which he and his wife were both devoted.

It’s all here … Frederic, rest in peace and rise in glory through the mercy of Jesus Christ. epiScope and all the staff at the Episcopal Church Center hold Cynthia and everyone at Anglicans Online in our prayers.

Wells remembered

'Great Debater' Wells remembered as spiritual, passionate
By JOHN PORRETTO
Associated Press
March 16, 2008

HOUSTON — Henrietta Bell Wells, the only woman on the 1930 Wiley College team that took part in the nation's first interracial collegiate debate, was remembered Sunday as a deeply spiritual person whose presence moved others to be quiet and listen.

Wells died Feb. 27 in Baytown. She was 95.

Wells was the last surviving member of the team portrayed in last year's movie, "The Great Debaters."

The movie, starring Denzel Washington, focused on Melvin Tolson's success leading an underdog debate team at a small, southern, historically black college in the mid-1930s. Founded in 1873, Wiley is in east Texas, about 40 miles from Shreveport, La.

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Hey, It's Your Funeral

You Don't Have to Be at Death's Door to Do A Little Planning for Your Final Farewell
By Dan Zak
Washington Post
February 24, 2008; N01

If you watch cable television regularly, you may catch "Beetlejuice" on TBS or TNT. You remember: Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis play a young couple who perish when their car veers off a covered bridge into a creek bed. They are transformed into ghosts and deposited back in their home, where they are confronted with a copy of "The Handbook for the Recently Deceased." Handy!

But what about a handbook on this side of the mortality line? What about a guide for the not-yet-deceased-but-could-go-at-any-minute-without-warning? And we can go any minute. Choking on our roast beef, driving to or from work or simply dropping dead. Unlike the Baldwin and Davis characters, we can't haunt or communicate with our friends and families. So they are left to deal with a mess of personal effects and life's half-completed projects, e-mail and bank accounts with unknown passwords, and doubts about what to do with our bodies and legacies. In the wake of our deaths, we leave an incomplete puzzle whose pieces may be forever missing.

If you find that scenario less than appealing, there are simple things you can do to get things in order just in case. But many people don't know where to start -- or don't even want to start.

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Truman's daughter returns to home

Margaret's memorial planned
By Toriano L. Porter
February 22, 2008

The only daughter of Independence's most famous couple is coming home.

Margaret Truman Daniel, daughter of Harry S. and Bess Truman, will be remembered in a special memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 500 West U.S. Highway 24.

Daniel passed away Jan. 29 at the age of 83 in Chicago after a brief illness.

Her 84th birthday would have been Sunday.

A small, private funeral for the family will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church prior to the Truman Library memorial service.

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A life in full

Rev. Rudolph Roell, 99; led parish for a quarter century
By Bryan Marquard
Boston Globe
February 16, 2008

Before deciding ministry was his calling, the Rev. Rudolph Roell contemplated careers such as taking the Foreign Service exam, teaching fly-fishing, or giving educational bird lectures.
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"In my youth I had attended church services and occasionally took part in church activities, but it was a surface thing which had no life-changing impact on me," he wrote in 1996 for his Princeton University class of 1933 newsletter. But a year after graduating from college, "I began to think that I ought to do something about this lack in my life."

The path he followed led to ordination to the Episcopal priesthood and to St. Paul's Church in Dedham, where he was rector for more than a quarter-century. Twenty days before turning 100, Rev. Roell died on Feb. 7 in Ellis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Norwood.

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Born to lead

A dog's life well-lived
By Rebecca Jones
Rocky Mountain News (CO)
November 19, 2007

Editor's note: Anyone who has said goodbye to a dear pet will identify with this remembrance of cherished bulldog Killarney Rose. The author was editor of the Rocky's Critters page.

Killarney Rose Jones, one of the world's most beloved and accomplished English bulldogs, passed away quietly at her home Nov. 6 after a brief illness. She was 12 1/2, a spectacularly long life for a bulldog.
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Being an English bulldog, she was of the Anglican faith. She was the attentive practice audience for numerous sermons that her mom wrote while in seminary, and she never missed receiving her annual blessing at the St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals at St. John's Cathedral in Denver. For the last six years, she proudly led the procession down the cathedral's grand center aisle for the animal blessing, followed by the vergers, acolytes and choir. She was at her most magnificent during these services, prompting observers to comment that she clearly was born to lead parades. She certainly loved being the center of attention.

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Traditional

Athabascan leader, 95, dies
The Associated Press
October 12, 2007

FAIRBANKS -- The first traditional chief for the Athabascan people of the Interior died Thursday at his home in Chalkyitsik. The Rev. David Salmon was 95.

"He was sitting in his favorite chair when he passed," Salmon's granddaughter, Patricia Salmon, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner for a story posted on its Web site.

He died with family members and friends, including Second Traditional Chief Don Honea Sr. of Ruby, around him, she said.

Salmon was diagnosed with cancer this week and transported home Wednesday.

Family members said he was in good spirits and happy to be back in Chalkyitsik, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Yukon.

Salmon, an ordained Episcopal minister, has been the Interior's first traditional chief since 2003. The position is an honorary, nonpolitical office and is held in high esteem.

The Gwich'in elder was well-known for his work ethic and traditional toolmaking skills, and he was renown for his ministering and counsel, the News-Miner reported.

Salmon's death comes 10 days before the opening of the 2007 Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, where he was scheduled to address delegates. The convention is in Fairbanks.

It’s all here …and may he be gathered to his people in peace.

All sorts

Bishop emphasizes inclusiveness
Openly gay, he's at the heart of controversy
By Kate Moran
New Orleans (LA) Times-Picayune
September 24, 2007

As the leadership of the Episcopal Church meets in New Orleans to confront dissension over the role of gays in religious life, the church's first openly gay bishop gave a sermon at a liberal church on Canal Street focused on the inclusiveness of divine love.

The ordination of the Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire opened divisions in the church four years ago that seem to have widened and deepened with time. The worldwide Anglican Communion is now on the verge of schism as conservative prelates demand that the church stop consecrating gay bishops and blessing gay unions.

Although Robinson occupies the center of the controversy, he did not use the sermon he gave at Grace Episcopal Church on Sunday to advocate for the rights of gay ministers. The sermon, rooted in the Gospel of Luke, nonetheless conveyed his view that the church should embrace outsiders who live "on the edges of acceptable society."

If all scripture were lost save for one story, Robinson said, he would preserve the parable of the prodigal son: a young man who left home, squandered his inheritance and crawled back to his father in shame. His older brother lived a sober life and grew resentful when the father welcomed the wayward son home.

Robinson said the older brother did not understand that "the father's love is big and expansive enough for everyone, for both the good and the bad sons."

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TORKELSON: Rector has big task in troubled parish
Jean Torkelson
Rocky Mountain News
September 24, 2007

Ah, retirement. A life of cruise ships and the call of exotic places, from Hawaii to Assisi. Sweet, carefree days were just ahead for the Rev. Rod Moore and his wife, Mary.

So they thought.

"We had plans to travel,' Moore confided Sunday to his audience of about 150. "It just never occurred to us we'd be traveling to Broomfield."

The laughter he got had to feel good, especially since everything else is so dicey. At 65, Moore is taking on perhaps his most challenging assignment as an Episcopal priest: He's the new rector at Holy Comforter Church, the man Bishop Rob O'Neill counts on to hold together a parish racked by the chaos in the Episcopal Church USA.

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Trinity Cathedral initiating Blessing of Artists
Monday, September 24, 2007
By Marylynne Pitz
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In grim moments, writers curse frozen lap tops, oboists obsess as they scrape new bamboo reeds for their wind instruments and actors fume inwardly when they flub lines on stage.

Tomorrow, they may find some divine intervention at the city's first Blessing of the Artists, to be held at 5 p.m. in Trinity Cathedral.

The Rev. Paul Johnston, whose voice is familiar because of his 18-year stint as an on-air host for WQED-FM, has organized the 45-minute blessing service to wish artists well as they embark on a new cultural season.

Trinity Cathedral, Father Johnston noted, borders Downtown's Cultural District, and church leaders want to send artists "into the new season inspired and blessed and ready to go."

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Retired rector dies at 80
Colhoun worked with community
By Melissa Hall
Winston-Salem (NC) JOURNAL
September 24, 2007

When the Rev. E. Dudley Colhoun was called to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1961, he told the congregation, “It is wonderful to be here and I hope the response will be the same in six months and six years.”

He got his wish. Colhoun spent the next 31 years at St. Paul’s before retiring as rector in 1992.

Colhoun died Saturday night. He was 80.

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Goodbye, Meg...we'll miss you

Madeleine L’Engle, Children’s Writer, Is Dead
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
The New York Times
September 8, 2007

Madeleine L’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88.

Her death, of natural causes, was announced today by her publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s classic, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.

Her works — poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer — were deeply, quixotically personal. But it was in her vivid children’s characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for the questions that mattered most. She sometimes spoke of her writing as if she were taking dictation from her subconscious.

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For more than three decades, starting in 1966, Ms. L’Engle served as librarian and writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. One or two of her dogs often accompanied her to the cathedral library.
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“Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L’Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer.

“It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

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In mission

Episcopal bishop hopes for healing
Aug 14, 2007
By Carol Reeves
Corvallis (OR) Gazette-Times

A year after her controversial election as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Katharine Jefferts Schori is still hopeful tensions within the denomination and the worldwide Anglican Communion can be resolved.

“I think as a Christian you have to live in hope of reconciliation always,” Jefferts Schori said during a brief stop in Corvallis at the beginning of a weeklong vacation.

“If we can get people to get out of a face-saving mode and refocus on the mission of the church, I think we can learn to live together and stay one body.”

Jefferts Schori, an Oregon State University graduate and former assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, was elected in June of 2006 as the first woman to serve as the national leader, or primate, of one of the 38 provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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Freedom of flight
Air show draws plane enthusiasts, young and old
By AMY ROBINSON
The Pueblo Chieftain - Star Journal
August 12, 2007

While some people like books and others enjoy cars, Jack Wilson is a self-proclaimed airplane enthusiast.

"If it's flying, I'm interested in it," he said during the 'Pueblo In Their Honor Air Show' Saturday afternoon. "I'm simply infected with the flying disease."

Wilson, who was a senior pilot in the Air Force Auxiliary (now the Civil Air Patrol), works as an Episcopal priest and psychologist, in addition to writing a Pueblo Chieftain weekly column.

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St. Stephen’s deacon begins new career
Kristin Edwards
The Huntsville (TX) Item

The Rev. Bonnie Edwards always felt called to the ministry, but for some reason she had to wait until she was “old enough to have some life experience.”

While awaiting the Episcopal church’s decision to ordain women, Edwards pursued a career in photography and started her own business, but never forgot what she considered to be the calling she was meant for.

After a lengthy process that started in 2001, she was ordained as a deacon on June 23 and is now happily working as an assistant to the Rev. Jim Morgan at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

“I started here on July 1, and I love it here,” she said. “I love this church, I love the windows, and I love that we’re a part of God’s creation in this way.”

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Deacon puts belief into actions
Column by Kevin Eigelbach
Cincinnati (OH) Post
8/9/2007

Last month, when local janitors celebrated an historic contract that raised their wages and gave them more hours, Tim Borah was there.

"It appears they negotiated a fairly decent contract," Borah said. "I felt really good."

For more than a year, Borah had supported the janitors' struggle to organize, including standing with them on informational pickets outside Cincinnati's biggest buildings.

It's the kind of thing the Latonia, Ky., resident will be doing more of as a deacon for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio.

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Finding faithful leaders
Sherri Richards
Fargo (ND) Forum

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The Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota is also encouraging church members to take on leadership roles.

This summer, 18 deacons were ordained, the first class of the two-year North Dakota School of Ministry, a program initiated by Bishop Michael Smith. They now are able to minister at congregations throughout the state.

The Rev. Jamie Parsley, assistant to the bishop for communications, sees the deacons as a bridge between the lay members and the priesthood, and a way for rural Episcopal churches to continue.

“Without ordained ministry, they don’t have potential to grow,” Parsley said.

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The Very Rev. Cavanaugh dies
By HELEN T. GRAY
The Kansas City Star

The Very Rev. J. Earl Cavanaugh, dean emeritus of Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, died Thursday afternoon at his home at Bishop Spencer Place.

Cavanaugh, 77, served at the cathedral at 13th Street and Broadway from 1976 to 1995 and until recently celebrated the Friday noon Eucharist.

He was known as a big man with a big heart for people, the community and the church, all of which have reaped benefits from his life.

Bishop Barry Howe of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri said Kansas City has lost a strong national figure, clergy and lay people have lost a wonderful spiritual mentor, and he has lost a loyal friend.

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A LIFE LIVED: Bishop Edward W. Jones, 1929-2007

Bishop had a compassionate presence
By David Mannweiler
The Indianapolis Star

What do you give an Episcopal bishop who is laying down his crosier, an elaborate staff shaped like a shepherd's crook to symbolize the leader of a flock?

The Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis confronted that question in 1997 when the Right Rev. Edward Jones retired after 20 years as its ninth bishop.

He loved the Waycross Episcopal Camp and Conference Center, so the diocese gave the Brown County center a swimming pool and a bathhouse in his name.

He loved learning, so the diocese gave him a cruise to the Galapagos Islands. "That was a dream of his," said Indianapolis Bishop Right Rev. Catherine Waynick, who succeeded Bishop Jones.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Bishop Jones died July 28 in a convalescent home in Bloomington. He was 78.

Bishop Jones suffered a brain injury in a fall in February. When his condition deteriorated after a May surgery, he declined further surgery. He was participating in an experimental medication program at IU.

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Parishes and people

St. Paul’s opens doors, vaults to the public
Nick Pinto
The Daily News of Newburyport

NEWBURYPORT — The Yankee Homecoming festival has always been an opportunity for the city to cast an eye at its legacy. This year, members of the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will add another layer to the mix with a series of tours revealing the church’s own history of nearly 300 years.

“People drive by this church every day, or attend services Sunday, without knowing the wealth of history or the stories of the people who lived through historic times that shape our present lives and community,” said Bronson de Stadler, a member of St. Paul’s congregation who is helping organize the tours.

The congregation of St. Paul’s came into being in 1711, in a little wooden chapel near the current location of the Port Plaza shopping complex. This makes St. Paul’s the second-oldest congregation in Newburyport, after the First Parish Church. Even the Old South Church is more than 30 years younger.

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Creede Episcopalians note dual anniversaries
St. Augustine's Episcopal Church in Creede looks good after a century.
By ERIN SMITH
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
July 21, 2007

CREEDE - St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church this year is celebrating 110 years as a congregation and 100 years in its building.

A special celebration will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the church, with more celebrating to follow on the lawn.

The congregation has five active members in the winter, nine in the summer. That makes it too small to have a bishop’s warden as do most Episcopal churches, but it has a person in charge, Jan Jacobs.

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‘Kingdom values': St. Martin's youth pastor inspires next generation
By Susan Cosio
Davis Enterprise
July 21, 2007

Austin Leininger wears a wooden cross around his neck. He got it at a youth conference his senior year of high school. It is, he says, a quiet witness to his faith.

What is even more noticeable is the calm demeanor of the now 33-year-old youth pastor and assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of St. Martin. The equanimity in his light blue eyes conveys a message of serenity.

“Everyone has the capacity for a peaceful life,” Leininger says, “if we take the time to relax and be with God, and do the things that are important.”

Leininger lives according to what he calls “kingdom values.”

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Priest made significant strides for local elderly
He also led All Saints Episcopal Church for almost 20 years.
By Jessie-Lynne Kerr
The Times-Union

There will be a memorial service at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 2 at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral at 256 E. Church St. A graveside service with interment of ashes will be at 11 a.m. on Aug. 6, at City Cemetery in Highlands, N.C.

Rev. Riley came to Jacksonville in 1978 to be the canon for social ministry at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral. The following year, he became rector of All Saints Episcopal Church on Hendricks Avenue, a post he held until retiring in 1997.

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So long to the Episcopalian Whisperer

Quote of the Day: John Shelton Reed, friend of the late Doug Marlette
    (RNS) "I can't think of a religious group he didn't offend. He even did a cartoon that upset the Episcopalians, and you know how hard it is to upset Episcopalians."
    -- John Shelton Reed, a longtime friend of the late editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette, who died Tuesday (July 10) in a Mississippi car crash. Reed, who helped form the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, was quoted by The Washington Post.

Your editor keeps this series of Kudzu cartoons posted prominently in her office at 815 Second Avenue, to help maintain perspective. Click to download, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.

"He put new life in the church"

Reverend kept British accent, but made Wyo his home
By ALLISON RUPP
Jackson Hole Star-Tribune
Thursday, July 12, 2007

Faith.

Rev. Roy Baker had a lot of it, while Ann Adams felt she had lost some of hers.

Adams had been away from the Episcopal Church for about eight or nine years. She was at "a really, really low point" in her life when a friend recommended she return to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.

The church had gotten a new pastor, she remembered her friend saying. That was when Adams met Rev. Roy Baker.

"He was welcoming," said Adams, who rejoined St. Stephen's in late 2002. "He kind of got the congregation back into it, got me back into it. He put new life in the church."

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A peaceful night, a perfect end

Lady Bird Johnson, 94, Dies; Eased a Path to Power
By ENID NEMY
The New York Times
July 12, 2007

Lady Bird Johnson, the widow of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was once described by her husband as “the brains and money of this family” and whose business skills cushioned his road to the White House, died yesterday afternoon at her home in Austin, Tex. She was 94.

Mrs. Johnson was hospitalized for a week last month with a low-grade fever. She died of natural causes, surrounded by family, including her two daughters, and friends, said a family spokeswoman, Elizabeth Christian.

Mrs. Johnson was a calm and steadying influence on her often moody and volatile husband as she quietly attended to the demands imposed by his career. Liz Carpenter, her press secretary during her years in the White House, once wrote that “if President Johnson was the long arm, Lady Bird Johnson was the gentle hand.”

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Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94
By CLAUDIA FELDMAN
Houston Chronicle

Lady Bird Johnson, a former first lady, a Texas legend, a woman who used the humble wildflower to teach an entire nation to treasure and preserve the environment, died Wednesday. She was 94.

In recent years, the widow of Lyndon Baines Johnson was virtually silenced by a stroke. She was nearly blinded by macular degeneration. Still, she lived her life with enthusiasm, dividing her time between the family ranch in Stonewall and an Austin home near the presidential library dedicated to her husband. She thrived on visits with friends and family and inhaled mystery books on tape.

Family spokesman Neal Spelce said Johnson's final days were good ones, surrounded by loved ones who had been holding a vigil for the past few days.

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Champion of Conservation, Loyal Force Behind LBJ
By Joe Holley
Washington Post
July 12, 2007

Lady Bird Johnson, 94, a first lady whose quiet ambition and determination allowed her to play an influential role in her husband's remarkable political career and to carve out an identity of her own as an advocate for beautifying the national landscape, died yesterday at her home in Austin.

Mrs. Johnson, who also was a successful businesswoman and philanthropist, had been in failing health for several years. She suffered a stroke in 1993 and was legally blind because of macular degeneration. She spent six days last month in an Austin hospital, where she was treated for a low-grade fever. "She just slipped away," family spokeswoman Elizabeth Christian said.

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Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94
By Howard Witt
Chicago Tribune
July 12, 2007

HOUSTON — Lady Bird Johnson, the widow of President Lyndon B. Johnson whose insistence on beautifying the nation's highways was largely responsible for the wildflowers and greenery that relieve weary motorists to this day, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94.

In declining health since suffering a stroke in 2002 and recently released from a hospital stay after falling ill with a fever, Johnson died at her Texas home in Austin of natural causes, surrounded by family and friends, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Christian.

Her husband, who assumed the presidency after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, died in 1973, four years after the Johnsons left the White House.

"Her beautification programs benefited the entire nation," former First Lady Betty Ford said. "She translated her love for the land and the environment into a lifetime of achievement."

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Lady Bird Johnson dead at 94
Wife of LBJ set beautification tone
By Mark Feeney
Boston Globe
July 12, 2007

Lady Bird Johnson, whose warm, gracious manner and devotion to beautifying the United States made her one of the nation's most beloved public figures, died yesterday at her Austin, Texas, home. She was 94. Mrs. Johnson died of natural causes, according to a family spokeswoman.

Mrs. Johnson, the widow of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, had been in declining health since suffering a stroke in 2002. She continued to make occasional public appearances, despite difficulties speaking. In May, she attended an event at the LBJ Library featuring Robert Dallek , a biographer of her husband.

It's all here ...and a look into her early life is here. She was a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, Texas.