(Host) Former Governor Phil Hoff is remembering Lady Bird Johnson as a “lovely, thoughtful person.”
Mrs. Johnson died yesterday in Austin, Texas.
Hoff says he met Mrs. Johnson many times when he was governor.
Hoff says the first lady was the president’s most important ally and friend.
(BITE) “She watched what he ate. She watched what he did. She took awful good care of him.”
(Host) Hoff also remembers fondly a visit Mrs. Johnson made to Vermont after an appearance in Maine.
The Vermont National Guard sent a plane to pick her up and the former first lady was on board with her press secretary.
On the way back, the plane hit some turbulence and it gave Mrs. Johnson a moment to show some poise.
(Hoff) “I can remember standing in the aisle holding hands with each of them until we finally got through the weather and arrived in Burlington. She was quite a lady and we’ll miss her.”
(Host) Mrs. Johnson suffered a stroke in 2002 and had been hospitalized for a week last month.
She was 94.