if she worked on her desk with letters she was processing, when she was processing, which he -- when she completed things she would put them on the floor. but she stayed at the office most of the day, making phone calls are working on projects that she loved so much. she loved this office because she could look out at her alma mater and then a quarter through corridor throughcorridor door to the capital. in the city she looked so much. -- city she loved so much. she would stay here all day and that was pretty much monday through friday. when we were having guests at the ranch she would sometimes go out a few days early and stay in the different guestrooms to check on the water and the lights to be sure everything was working like the tv in the different rooms. we would also make a stop on the way out to the ranch to the store to pick up magazines that were just specific for whoever was coming to the ranch for the weekend. very thoughtful, very meticulous and gracious about that.

we had three office staff at the time. we are the personnel and -- who handled her calendar. we had a person came from the white house and a press secretary who helped work on speeches and then i was in the office. so that chair was usually occupied by one of us a good part of the day as we rotated during projects that she was working on. by friday afternoon she was ready to leave and go to the ranch which she really called home. at about 3:30 in the afternoon she would say, to have anything else to do? if the answer is no, she would say tell the secret service am -- i am ready to go. she would get up and we would pack those little saddlebags up and she would take off and head out to the ranch for the weekend. she would be back here on monday morning normally. i was so fortunate to be here and learn some much from her in the way she did things in a way she entertained. i like the way she entertained. i think that is one reason we did so well together. i really loved her sense of making people feel at home. she was so good at it.

>> the business of being just specific, she was so awful about things for you. when i got married, they were in the white house when i got married and she sent out to the house the beautiful, a beautiful print of the capital seen from the white house in the 19th century. it was just so perfect. the capital is the building i grew up in and their view of it now. and it was signed by them. >> so we have learned from you and from this tape that she continued to be a very active first lady, post first lady into her very late years. >> into the 1990s. i think the macular degeneration in the 90s, she had to stop

reading and that is when she really stopped giving speeches i was told because she couldn't see the notes well enough. but certainly into the 90s she was very active and then we were talking earlier about how even after the stroke she continued to see people, just valiantly going out to restaurants, even though she couldn't voice her reaction, she laughed and made people feel that she really appreciated them. >> she was very active at the library and very interested in the work. i was there at least three times in this century, the 21st. she was always there. >> and she was so important in the building of the library. she looked into the smallest detail how they were going to attach certain things to the wall. she had herself raised in a crane so she could see with a see what the view would be from her office which was on the top floor. she was very important in the building of the library. and where it would be located, because she had traveled to the

fdr library and thought that the hometown might not be the best place. >> karen in cleveland. hi, karen. caller: i had two questions. one was about how she felt about her daughter lucy getting married at such a young age and the second question about her involvement in the johnson school of education after his death. >> her work at texas was very much part of the work at the library, it was all of a piece. she was very interested in that work. that is a great place. it is a wonderful school. she was private about her views about her daughter getting married young, but obviously it was something worrisome. but then once lucy had made up her mind her parents embraced it and embraced her husband. >> in her post-white house years, her work for conservation and beautification was recognized with the presidential medal of freedom in 1977 and a congressional gold medal in

1980. -- in also, the national 1988. was created aser a result of her work. >> it was on her 70th birthday and it has since moved, but it is still in austin and it is really quite an operation. answering questions from all over the world about what species will grow where and showing people model gardens. she continued to visit that right up until she was in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank. she knew the people who work ed there. she really continued to be active in that area. >> as a time with lady bird johnson comes to an end, we will return to the ranch in texas one last time. >> this is mrs. johnson's private bedroom. it was part of the 1967 remodeling. she specified to the designers that she wanted this to be her forever room. she specified certain elements she wanted.

a fireplace, east facing windows and a large bookcase to displace the many mementos and keepsakes she gathered through the years. the birds, the china. and also cameras. lyndon johnson actually gave mrs. johnson a camera as a wedding gift and she became quite the photojournalist. she had an 8mm camera to capture home movies, we have hours and hours of her home movies. as well as the recorder here are -- where mrs. johnson every night at the white house would record her daily observations. this became the basis for the book which is a very insightful chronicling of those tumultuous years of the 1960s. now mrs. johnson lived for 34 years after the president's death. in her later years mrs. johnson love to sit here at this desk to keep up with the correspondence and all of her activities as a very active former first lady. also in the space we have mrs. johnson's closet with all of the

clothing, her formalwear, the ranch clothing with the boots and the hats, a lot of for -- a lot of her colorful outfits and her shoes. one of my favorites is the straw hat with the bluebonnets painted on top. and then her private bathroom that is again very reflective of the importance of family with all the photographs of those who mattered so much to her and to her grandchildren and great- grandchildren she was known as nini, a very special person in their lives. lady bird johnson had a great sense of history and infecting -- and in fact her years in washington, she would often be a tour guide for texans who went to the nation's capital. i had the fortune to meet lady bird johnson while working at harry s truman national historic site and i was very impressed that she wanted to see how the truman story was being interpreted, knowing that one day her story would be told here at the lbj ranch. >> after mrs. johnson's death in 2007, the ranch was then ceded

to the national park service. it is available for you to visit if you happen to be in that part of texas in the texas hill country. you really get a sense of the johnson's life and you're there. so she died at the age of 94. sharon cooper wants to know how the country respond to her ed to her death. >> there was an outpouring of love. >> everybody showed up. former presidents and first ladies and, as i say, members of congress and artificial people you would expect to be there, but also this wonderful response of her staff and the secret service. seeing them coming was really quite something. i think also the point we just heard that the park service make about her sense of history. it is something we can enjoy

so much and that he has made a point several times, all of this is available to us. all we have to do is go to our computers and mrs. johnson has made it possible for us to see their home movies, read their love letters and most important from my perspective, hitters -- from my perspective, here are those johnson tapes. she allowed those tapes to be open to the public without knowing what was on them, which is very gutsy. we have learned enormous amount about american politics and american history from listening to those tapes. -- and where are she and the president buried? >> just on the road from the -- just down the road from the ranch house in the family cemetery. not the library, but they chose to be out in the countryside, the country that they loved. >> their burden of family cemetery were some of his siblings come i think his mother and father are buried there. you can walk from the ranch to the cemetery to the birthplace to the schools in 10 minutes, i don't know, a very short time. >> what should her legacy be

seen as among first ladies? >> i think she was an outstanding first lady who really wrote the book for modern first ladies, what they needed to do to be noncontroversial and yet contribute to a spouse's legacy. it would work for a man, too, you know. [laughter] right, first guide. >> she understood that she had a megaphone and that she could use it for good and she did that and expected all of her successors to do the same. >> extra collects at the white house is your call association for their assistance. thank you for being with us once again tonight. ♪

abroadnixon traveled

more than any first lady before her. she even took a solo trip to africa as a personal representative of the president. watch our programs saturday at 7 p.m. eastern on c-span. on august 9, 1974, feist resident ford was sworn in of the vice president of the united states. his wife was less than excited about becoming first lady. president ford encouraged her saying we can do this. she resolved to have fun doing it. within 10 days she had a state dinner with king hussein of jordan. there was something she had to prepare for in her role as first lady. she hit the ground running. first lady betty ford. monday live on c-span.

>> next from the lyndon baines johnson presidential library, a tour of the white house from 1968, narrated by lady bird johnson. >> rather small room. [indiscernible]

when i was the wife of a brand-new texas congressman, i never imagined that one day i would live on the other side of that fence. like many tourists, i had the distinct feeling that this house belonged in part to me. i think that is a feeling that everyone who visits here shares. just like the thousands who come by the majesty of the pride of the stream of history that ran through each of the rooms. what the passerby doesn't always realize is that there are two sides to the white house.

the official side that remains in the public eye and the private side that the public rarely sees. living quarters for the president and his family. this is our living room. actually it is the west and of hall. of the long it is the nerve center and crossroads of all family activities. an intimate place and get busy. it is -- and yet busy. and it belongs to all the family. psychologically, when you cross that threshold, you feel that you are at home, that you are inside your own house. you can put on a robe and slippers and curl up with a good book. we gather here on all the climactic occasions, such as the immediate moments following the state of the union message or another major address to the nation. we usually invite those who

worked on the speech were who -- the speech or who had contributed to the event. on those nights, this room has been filled. it has the same electric quality of a broadway opening after the performance you're anxious to hear the reviews. although we have had some thrilling successes and high moments of pride, there were some chilly moments, too. but happy or painful, this is where the initial public reaction is seen by the president and this is where the family shares his experience. this room is also a listening post for the tone of the day. when we have no engagements in the evening, i coming here with some of my work that is so -- that isn't so demanding and wait for lyndon to come home from his work. you can see his office from

here. the lights may be on until 8:00 or maybe 9:00 or 10:00. sometimes he doesn't come home till dinner until after midnight. it is not for a far for a man to commute, but in terms of his responsibilities, there is a great distance from here to there. i recall being up here as lyndon brought in his latest acquisition for our old book collection and lucy emerged from the kitchen with a pan of brownies she had made and at the same time the room that lyndon -- at the same time knowing that lyndon was down there only a few yards away. perhaps it was a crisis of the gulf of tonkin, of the middle east in june 1967. but sooner or later, the lights would go out and then in a few moments i would hear a little voice down the hall call out,

>> where's bird?" and then i would know he was home, really home. like in any american home, this room has its personal touches. bookshelves that reflect individual interests of the family. old and treasured friends, one of the things that i'm proud to leave as a reminder of our time here is an addition to the white house permanent collection of thomas sully's portrait of franny kimball is our most recent acquisition for the permanent collection. gypsy girl. the first painting acquired during our stay at the white house was winslow homer's

i saved our favorite for last. you can almost feel the love between the mother and her children. look at that little girl. is she wondering what the small child is going to mean to her life? it is such a dear painting. it seems to set the tone of the room. it is where the family shared to many personal and intimate thisnts. where we felt we were in the is heart of the house, really at home. each of the rooms in the family quarters of the white house has a special personality, a distinctive mood. here, the treaty room has a dark green velvety look good its

or reflects the opulence of the victorian period. but after the civil war this became the cabinet room for president andrew johnson, but it was president grant to introduce this table which so many succeeding presidents used to conduct the nation's business until 1902. that was when the country outgrew the second floor. president roosevelt who had six children and was not tradition bound moved to the west wing presidential offices, separating once and for all the family quarters from the day-to-day work of the chief executive. many objects bring to mind earlier presidents. the torches of andrew jackson, this lamp presented to grover -- presented to mrs. grover cleveland, and this wastebasket

of president grant. the chandelier has an interesting story behind it. it was designed for the east room in president grant's time. but it soon passed from room to room until it finally wound up gracing president the adore resident theodore roosevelt's new office. every time the door opens it tinkled, striking him greatly. he ordered it to be sent to the capital and he was supposed to have said, put in the vice president's office and it will keep him awake. and there it remained until my husband became vice president in during mrs. kennedy's 1961. renovation, we were instrumental in returning it to the white house where it hangs today. this room has seen many treaty signings. in our time i've witnessed two treaties here involving the geographic extremes of our

country. the first was the treaty which made the summer home of franklin delano roosevelt an international park between canada and the united states. behind this table, prime minister pearson of canada and the has been receded, flanked by their delegations. i remember james roosevelt and ms. grace tully, the president's personal secretary, it was a thrilling look back into the past. and then from the northernmost part of the country to the southernmost. in october of 1967, returning to mexico a small strip of land long in dispute between our countries. what a feeling of goodwill there was that day. the texas congressman from the border districts were here and a delegation from mexico, everyone i felt was saying to himself it is done at last. i can recall some other writing performed at this table.

i was showing my guest the rooms on the second floor. we entered the treaty room and as i began my recital, i saw on the table some rather tattered notebooks and chewed pencils, a high school algebra and latin book. it was evident that linda and lucy had discovered what i too would soon learn, that this room is not as conducive to getting work done. almost from the beginning, i have used this room to launch the project closest to my heart. it is a good place to gather your committee or your group, talk into being a program and get it moving. most of our beautification planning was done right here. we took our notes on president grants table and our connection with the outside world with this

old french telephone made in 1890. and then, i know that one day when i walk through the finished lyndon b. johnson library in texas, vivid memories of this room will come to mind. for almost three years, our various library committees have met here. many of the chancellors, regions, historians and archivists and all manners of historians. here we have watched library grow from just the germ of an idea to a real, living repository of history. and so, a room that started out as a working environment by a succession of presidents still provides that very important function for 20th-century first ladies with a variety of projects. it is a working room, but like any room in the white house is also a collection of memories. having the entire family together for lunch is a joy but

lindens hours vary with his work hours vary with his work and the girls are unpredictable. but when everyone's activities coincide in together in the dining room. -- everyone's activities coincide and we gather together in the dining room. >> he looks so much like his daddy. [indiscernible]

>> still i think one of our parting gifts to the white house might be our in resident highchair. >> wouldn't you be glad if you got your very own highchair for >> i found exactly how

much the other one was and how much the playpen was. >> to grandmother highchairs and one grandmother play chair. i knew that lyndon would be in the highchair. -- lyndon would still be in the junior chair. [indiscernible] >> he would not be in one of my chairs with a nice needlepoint seats. >> you trying to tell me --? [laughter] >> i'm going to have to go. >> by, daddy. >> i bet you think you're going. [applause]

[laughter] >> he does, he knows he loves him. >> uh-oh. >> to me, the yellow oval room is the loveliest room in all the white house. while our living room is homey and cozy, this room is formal yet, there is life here. it is warm and inviting. it is the one room in the white house where formal ceremony intermingles with family life. it symbolizes in a way the role a president's family plays while

living here. where the personal life and the official duties are always closely related. president franklin roosevelt's bedroom was next door. this room as a sitting room and an office. for us, it is the main drawing room. on winter evenings the fire is a magnet for good conversation. traditionally, the yellow oval room has been used for entertaining and for receptions. in fact, this is where the first official reception ever held at the white house took place. here on a chilly january 1 in 1801, john and abigail adams -- receive the ministers from the first six countries that had recognized this brand-new nation. and still today, this room offers hospitality to visiting chiefs of state. this is where we invite the

prime minister's or kings and their wives for that half hour or so before a state dinner. filled with honors and formal ceremonies on the south lawn. colorful fanfare sometimes a , parade. this has always been an impressive experience, a responsibility. i go to the third floor before the occasion and look at the great map case. india,l down liberia, then i read a fat sheaf of briefings on the visitors. i also try to go over the guest list a good many times before hopefully you can say something more than just how do you do to our guests who come from all over the united states to meet the visiting head of state.

and then it is a high moment when the color guard enters. the president escorts the wife of the visiting chief and i, in turn, with our guest. for a year, the handsome marine captain who led the group was chuck robb. he's terribly military and impressive. many months it passed before i realized i might be looking at our future son-in-law. we've had so many wonderful personal happy times in this room. here, lyndon and i celebrated just last year our 33rd wedding anniversary. the cake that linda planned hailed our time together one third of a century. -- was our grandson's first birthday. was a cake for it is when provided us with a household crisis.

in the end, the furniture didn't suffer one bit, but my nerves did. and then there was the christmas of 67. my husband was plunged into a trip around the world. forpects were bleak indeed christmas with our whole family together. i followed his headlines from australia to thailand to rome. and then, gloriously, he came home on christmas eve. that christmas we were seven. two sons-in-law and a new baby. unspoken was the thought that next christmas shauna be here. -- shall not the here. it was a fragile happiness like some lovely bubble. i think the room must have

sensed it, for it was never prettier. it was our first christmas in the white house, a moment to catch and hold. it seemed to underscore my feeling that this house is only on loan to its tenants. that we are temporary occupants linked to a continuity of presidents who have come before us and who will succeed us. for only a brief time we serve as the extension of 200 million people holding that trust, working to fulfill it. >> the man who sits in his chair -- in this chair sits in the chair that has been occupied by less than 40 men. in the long history of this great republic.

he is selected by the will and by the votes of the majority of the citizens of this republic. he must execute the philosophy and the policies of the people of this nation, regardless of his own personal feelings from time to time. he is the executor of the will of the people of this nation and he carries upon his shoulders day and night a burden that always seems at least to him too much to carry but only for him to carry. we will be leaving here shortly,

after having spent almost 40 years in the federal service. we came to washington with some very deep set convictions. we felt that we could contribute to making this a better country for all of our people. and some feel we have made great progress, education, health, housing. in some respects we have had many disappointments. but in the last few years in this house, in this office, we have had a chance to impress upon the people of this nation those simple convictions that brought us to this town and that kept me here for almost four decades. it is important to reflect and

look back and see what has been done because there is no better way to judge a future than by the past. but the important thing that faces our country now is for a new president to look at the new challenges and find new answers, find a means of communicating with our young and providing leadership and inspiration for them so that they will realize that we do care. find a way to help better understanding come to our races so that we can live together in peace and harmony and equality with justice to all. no president ever came to this office on a platform of doing what was wrong. most of us have made some decisions that were wrong, and

as we leave office most of the people seemed to feel that most of the things we have done have been wrong. but every man who is ever -- who has ever occupied this or sat at this desk or reclined in this chair has been dedicated to doing what he was for the best interests of the people of this country. i'm utterly convinced that when any man takes the oath of office as president he is determined to do what is right as god gives him the wisdom to know the right. most people come into the office with great dreams and believe it -- and they leave it with many satisfactions and some

disappointments, and always some of their dreams have not come true. and i am no exception. but i'm so grateful and so proud that i have had my chance. as to how successful have been doing the greatest good for the greatest number, the people themselves and their posterity must ultimately decide. i have the satisfaction and my family has the satisfaction that we gave it all we had. we think we provided some of the answers to the needs of our time.

>> pat nixon traveled abroad more than any first lady before her. accompanying the president to china and many other locations. program saturday at 7 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> this is the dress that mrs. ford was wearing at the swearing-in ceremony in the east

room of the white house. she was distressed about becoming first lady but resident ford encouraged her, saying we can do this. she resolved to have fun doing it. the fun started almost immediately. within 10 days she had a state dinner to entertain king hussein of jordan. this is something she had prepared for in her role as first lady lady as she hit the ground running. betty ford, monday night at nine eastern on c-span.