Name at birth: Claudia Alta Taylor

Claudia Taylor was nicknamed "Lady Bird" as a small child, and she became Lady Bird Johnson when she married Lyndon Johnson in November of 1934. LBJ became a U.S. senator from Texas and then vice-president under John F. Kennedy; when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Lady Bird replaced Jackie Kennedy as the country's First Lady. After LBJ left office in 1969, the Johnsons retired to Texas. After her husband's death in 1973, Lady Bird Johnson became known for her support of the preservation and promotion of wildflowers in America. She published a memoir, White House Diary, in 1970.

First Lady Johnson's nickname is said to come from the Taylor family nanny, who proclaimed the infant Claudia "pretty as a ladybird" (some people call them ladybugs)... The Johnsons had two children: Lynda Bird (b. 1944) and Luci Baines (b. 1947); Lynda married Charles Robb, who became a U.S. senator from Virginia.