Fourth Grade
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, one of her nursemaids exclaimed, "She's purty as a lady bird!" The nickname stuck with her the rest of her life. Claudia "Lady Bird" Taylor grew up to become Mrs. Ladybird Johnson, wife and First Lady of the thirty-sixth President of the United States.
Claudia Taylor was born in Karmack, 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 helped raise 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 in Dallas in 1933, but stayed another year to earn a 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 changed when she met a congressional aide named Lyndon Baines Johnson. After a whirlwind courtship, Lyndon appeared at her home in Karmak on November 16, 1934, to ask for her hand in marriage. Within twenty-four hours, they were married and headed for Mexico for their honeymoon. Claudia Alta Taylor was now Lady Bird Johnson.
