Lynda Bird Johnson Robb

Lynda Bird Johnson Robb (born March 19, 1944) is the elder of the two daughters of United States President Lyndon Baines Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. She served as First Lady of Virginia from 1982 to 1986 and, before that, as Second Lady of Virginia from 1978 to 1982.

Lynda Bird was engaged to Bernard Rosenbach before she met the actor George Hamilton, who himself had been engaged to Susan Kohner. In 1966, Johnson and Hamilton began dating. Because of an increase in Secret Service protection of Presidential relatives resulting from the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Hamilton-Johnson couple were one of the first to be protected by Secret Service agents.

In Modern Screen Magazine, Hamilton declared that he could love Lynda Bird "even if she weren't the president's daughter". Nevertheless, the pair eventually broke up.

She married Marine Captain Charles S. Robb in the East Room of the White House in 1967. Her husband served with distinction in Vietnam. Charles Robb later became Lieutenant Governor of Virginia (1978–1982), making her Second Lady of Virginia. Later, Robb became Governor of Virginia, making her First Lady of Virginia. He also served as a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Virginia.

Lynda Byrd Johnson Robb served as chairman of the board of Reading is Fundamental, the nation's largest children's literacy organization, from 1996 to 2001. She continues to serve the organization as Chairman emerita. From 1969 to 1981, she was a contributing editor to Ladies Home Journal magazine. She serves on the Board of Directors of the LBJ Foundation and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Johnson was educated at the National Cathedral School for Girls, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. Holds Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Washington and Lee University and Norwich University, and has been honored with a plethora of civic awards for her public service.

She is the mother of three, in her words, "almost perfect"^[1] daughters, Lucinda Desha Robb (1968), Catherine Lewis Robb (1970) and Jennifer Wickliffe Robb (1978).

In 2004, Lynda Bird attended the state funeral of former President Ronald Reagan, on behalf of her mother, Lady Bird Johnson, who was unable to attend because of poor health and mobility problems. She again represented her mother for the state funeral of former President Gerald Ford, who died December 26, 2006.

References