And now she's ready to talk about writing and living and dying - subjects she approaches with the candor and wit that made her one of the most popular women in Washington during her days as Lady Bird Johnson's press secretary.

Let us imagine that Lady Bird Johnson and Amy Carter have both spent time in the hands of cartel kidnappers, living on tortillas, in fear of their lives in tiny cabins deep in, say, the Big Bend country.

Lady Bird Johnson in 1967.

It was 26 years ago that Lady Bird Johnson crusaded for the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which banned billboards within 1,000 feet of interstate highways.

In September 1966 President Lyndon Johnson's wife Lady Bird Johnson, flew into the airport to dedicate Fort Davis as a National Historic Site.

The governor's wife, based on Lyndon Johnson's wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

"I had a whale of a time on this earth," said the woman who spent much of her life working the corridors of power in Washington, first as a newspaper reporter and later as Lady Bird Johnson's much-admired press secretary.

ON Tuesday, Lord & Taylor rolled out its red carpet for Lady Bird Johnson, held a black-tie dinner-dance in her honor and presented her with its 12th annual Rose Award.

Gould, Lewis L. Lady Bird Johnson and the Environment (1988)

Lady Bird Johnson.