Johnson Ranch to Become Public

The U.S. and Texas flags fly at half-staff at the LBJ Ranch, in Stonewall, Texas, Thursday, July 12, 2007. Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson, who died Wednesday, is scheduled to buried at the family cemetery next to her husband, former President Johnson, on Sunday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) (Eric Gay - AP)

They retained a "life estate" in the home, allowing the family to maintain the residence there. Lady Bird Johnson hosted functions at the ranch over the years and was known to sometimes wave at the tour buses that drove by.

Though she had a house in Austin, "she would get away to the ranch as often as she could. It really was her home," longtime family friend Neal Spelce said Thursday.

"There really was no pretense. It was a place where you felt you could take off your shoes and kick your feet up," Spelce said.

The Johnson family will be given time to move out personal belongings before officials begin preparing the home for public tours.

"I think it's really honorable of the family to give something so personal to the public," said Chris North, of San Marcos, who brought her 9-year-old daughter to the ranch Thursday.

In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, Luci Baines Johnson, one of the president's daughters, joked that one of her children had asked how she could let the former president give away such a treasured property. There was no stopping Johnson when he wanted to do something, she explained.

The original portion of the house was a one-room cabin with a loft built by a German immigrant, William "Polecat" Meier. Today, the house is a rambling 28-room building with eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Officials say they don't know when it will be ready for public visits. They are considering recreating much of the interior so it will look as it did from 1963 to 1973, the year the former president died. They also want it to represent the former first lady's life after her husband's death.

Kathleen Svoboda, of Smithville, campaigned for Johnson as a student in Colorado in the 1960s. She visited the ranch Thursday and said she'll return to see the house when it's ready.

"The places where people spent their time tell so much about who they were," Svoboda said. "And (Lady Bird) was a beautiful person."