On my second visit at LBJ NHP, I couldn’t resist enjoying another pass through the jewel at this park, the Stonewall ranch, better known as the Texas White House.
The Texas White House, called that in part because LBJ spent so much of his presidency there, places its owner’s personality front and center. Nowhere does that ring more true than in the interior spaces LBJ used most, equipped with phones near whatever chair he might frequent, including the toilet! Below is the dining room. No speculation needed on where LBJ sat.
The living room and president’s bedroom included three TV’s, so nightly news programming on all three major networks could be watched simultaneously.
Below is LBJ’s bedroom, where he passed away from a heart attack on January 22, 1973. He had called secret service agents assigned to the property as the heart attack began. They found him on this bed with the phone receiver still in his hand. After Johnson’s death, no ex-presidents remained alive for only the second time in US history. The first had been the final months of Herbert Hoover’s administration.
LBJ had smaller planes, Jetstars, available as Air Force One since the normal Air Force One, a Boeing 707 jumbo jet, could not land at the ranch. The smaller Jetstars could fly directly to the ranch, avoiding stopovers in San Antonio or Austin.
