Champion of Conservation, Loyal Force Behind LBJ

He could be both. Crude, insensitive and parochial, he also was mesmerizing, inspiring and engagingly folksy -- particularly to attractive women, many of whom he was romantically linked with throughout his long political career. His most notorious involvement was with Alice Glass, the mistress and later wife of the publisher of the Austin American-Statesman and one of Johnson's patrons. Although the affair lasted years and was common knowledge in Washington, Mrs. Johnson maintained a lifetime of silence about it. She told friends she never really believed it happened.

"Everyone felt sorry for her," longtime friend Virginia Durr told Jan Jarboe Russell, author of "Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson" (1999). "He yelled at her. He ordered her around. He left her alone at the most important times of her life, and made no secret of his affairs. Still, she stayed loyal."

He also expected total devotion and total attention to his well-being, both personal and professional. Although Mrs. Johnson might have been what she called "slave labor," she never considered herself a victim. Instead, she viewed herself, in Russell's words, "as a woman strong enough to control and contain an ego as colossal as Lyndon Johnson's."

"She conducted herself, often in the most difficult circumstances, with a graciousness and dignity and total devotion to her husband that was heroic," said Robert A. Caro, the author of a multi-volume biography of Johnson.

Interviewed by The Post on the eve of her 82nd birthday, Mrs. Johnson recalled: "Ours was a compelling love. Lyndon bullied me, coaxed me, at times even ridiculed me, but he made me more than I would have been. I offered him some peace and quiet, maybe a little judgment."

Although she had prepared herself for a career -- more than one, in fact -- she never had a job outside the home until Johnson left his congressional office in her charge in the early months of World War II. While he was on active duty with the Navy, she served without pay but gained valuable experience.

She learned she could be independent, Mrs. Johnson told Russell. "That increased my self-worth and gave me courage to try to start a business of my own."

In 1943, she spent $17,500 of her inheritance to purchase KTBC, a 250-watt radio station in Austin operating at a deficit. Its previous owners had been unable to obtain approval from the Federal Communications Commission for a power increase, but Mrs. Johnson was granted approval within a month. Critics concluded that her husband's close connection to Franklin D. Roosevelt had made the difference.

Although Mrs. Johnson was president of the company, commuting from Washington to Austin weekly, it was her husband who negotiated an affiliation with the CBS radio network. The arrangement dramatically boosted advertising revenue and made the Johnsons millionaires.

In 1952, she decided to buy a TV station, despite Johnson's objections. "It is my money," she reminded him. By the mid-1960s, the family fortune included an Austin cable TV company, a bank, three other ranches and assorted real estate. She remained involved with the business, LBJ Holding Co, well into her 80s.

In 1944, at age 31, she became a mother for the first time. Three pregnancies had ended in miscarriages. Three years later, she had another girl.

Besides her daughters, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb of McLean and Luci Baines Johnson Turpin of Austin, survivors include seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.