After a friend in Austin introduced her to Johnson, Lady Bird recalled having felt "like a moth drawn to a flame". Biographer Randall B. Woods attributes Johnson's "neglect of his legal studies" to his courting of Lady Bird. On their first date, at the Driskill Hotel, Lyndon proposed. Lady Bird did not want to rush into marriage, but he was persistent. Ten weeks later, Lady Bird accepted his proposal, and the couple married on November 17, 1934, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio, Texas.
Though Johnson would soon turn his attention to politics, heading to Washington as a congressional aide in 1931, his experience as a teacher at Sam Houston High School in Houston left a lasting impression.
In addition to the Silver Star, Johnson received the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
A Democrat from Texas, Johnson had previously served as a United States Representative, as the Majority Leader in the United States Senate, and as 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963.
Johnson was quickly sworn in as President on Air Force One in Dallas on November 22, 1963, just 2 hours and 8 minutes after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He and the Secret Service were concerned that he could also be a target of a conspiracy, and felt compelled to rapidly remove the new president from Dallas and return him to Washington. This was greeted by some with assertions that Johnson was in too much haste to assume power.
Johnson declared an "unconditional war" on poverty in the United States, announcing that "Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it." He spearheaded legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid, expanding Social Security, making the food stamps program permanent and establishing Job Corps, the VISTA program, the federal work-study program, the Head Start program and Title I subsidies for poor school districts.
He was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes, a family friend.
Johnson wanted a catchy slogan to sum up his domestic agenda for the 1964 campaign. Eric Goldman, who joined the White House in December of that year, thought Johnson's domestic program was best captured in the title of Walter Lippman's book, The Good Society. Richard Goodwin tweaked it to "The Great Society" and incorporated the idea into a speech for Johnson in May 1964 at the University of Michigan. It encompassed movements of urban renewal, modern transportation, clean environment, anti-poverty, healthcare reform, crime control, and educational reform.
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