Letter, Lady Bird Johnson to Lyndon B. Johnson, 1940

Title:

Letter, Lady Bird Johnson to Lyndon B. Johnson, 1940

Number of Pages:

4

Description:

Lady Bird reading "Kitty Foyle," TJ Taylor raising cattle, CCC work, Environmental Conservation, Congressional Calendar and the War, Juanita Roberts

Contributor:

Johnson, Lady Bird, 1912-2007; Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973

Collection:

Personal Papers of Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson

Collection Description:

Go to List of Holdings

Series:

Post-Courtship Letters

Subject:

Lady Bird Johnson personal; Roberts, Juanita, 1913-1983

Archivist's General Note:

Scans are of the originals, but the box numbers refer to the service set

Rights:

The donor(s) of these records transferred their copyright to the U.S. government and their writings are therefore in the public domain. This file may also contain materials from other sources that may retain copyright.

Specific Item Type:

Correspondence

Type:

Text

Format:

Paper

Identifier:

pp-ctjandlbj-b2-f05-i4

Date:

1940-xx-xx

Time Period:

Pre-Presidential (Before Nov. 22, 1963)

Transcript:

[undated 1940-1]
Tuesday
Darling –
I feel lower than a mole and sad as goodbye. I just finished reading “Kitty Foyle”, by Christopher Morley, a novel I sort of “gave myself for dessert” because I’ve been reading relatively heavy things like “Mein Kampf” and “The Navy.” “Kittle Foyle” was such
2
a red-blooded, straight forward, poignant little book – it carried an awful wallop…Gee, I wish you were here! (That’s not at all irrelevant, if you [illegible word]
This morning Dad took me and Ruth over to the Haggerty pasture to show us his cattle – cattle-raising is the apple of his eye right now. He has about five hundred head, spread throughout eight pastures,
3
some of them Black Angus and very lovely ones. He has built a road right thru the heart of the Haggerty – and I can remember when you couldn’t even get thru there on horseback. The C. C. C. boys are clearing land, sodding it with Bermuda, and building fences for him. In return he’s building thirteen miles of terraces and
4
doing certain other conservation things. Pretty nice of Uncle Sam I think – sort of like hiring a child to drink milk, though.
We all listened to the news tonight. It sounds like Der Tag…Everybody I hear is railing at Congress about this sixty day delay, and any other delay they hear of. I don’t see how Congress can adjourn with the
5
war as it is now. If it doesn’t adjourn by October first I am coming back to Washington – make arrangements on this end of the line and get back to my job.
Last night I had dinner with Ray and Juanita Roberts. They have a cute little house they are buying at the rate of $22.50 a month with flowers in the
6
back yard and are both happy as larks. Ray weighs about 185. He is still effervescing ideas, and he still loves you very much. It was good to see him again. He took me to see his machine shop, where they teach [illegible words crossed out] boys about 15 trades including aviation mechanics, a rural re-settlement project for colored people (where
7
a tiny hospital handles venereal cases by the carload), and his residence training project for 115 boys.
What a clumsy thing this pen is. I think such sweet, intimate, even clever, things but they don’t come out that way!
Goodnight, my love. Write me about
8
when you’ll come down for a week-end and any new slant you may have on adjournment.
Lady bird
P. S. I’ve finished “The Navy,” which Charles gave to me. It’s a little on the blood-and-thunder side and too long winded about the wars but it does give you the flavor of our navy. I’m sending it along to you.