Yes, she was quite a lady.  Born and grew up in East  Texas in an old family home she later regretted had been built by slave labor.  She was very close to my own Mother in age and background.  

She had a big hand in the establishment of the National Wildflower Research Center, which focuses on wildflowers but in doing so addresses habitat restoration, fire ecology, invasive species, grassland ecology, land ethics, environmental public education, and even sustainability.  The Center was built mostly of native stone and has a rainwater collection system.  They use the surrounding acreage for demonstration purposes and research.

With a nod to Don Alexander, he must know that Austin is a national leader in sustainability in several areas.  Their green building initiatives are being copied everywhere, the local electric utility has very good incentives, such that Austin is a center of residential installation of PV and Wind, the annual Renewable Energy Roundup is bigger and bigger, and the Austin music scene is among the best.  Yeah, much of the rest of Texas is full of redneck clones of the stooge in the White House (who isn't even from Texas) but Don and I know we're not all like him.

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!  

It is regrettable that people in Texas felt aggrieved, that the passing of a great Texan was overlooked.  Grist does not claim to be exhaustive and encyclopedic, does it; but it is true, its selection of stories often seems based on a rather narrow range of interests.

As to what to call Mrs. Johnson, surely "Lady Bird" is always correct for writing purposes.  But in an obituary that I think I saw in Newsweek, there was quoted, from her diary, a remark by the Johnsons' old family friend and physician, which he made to her regarding the failing health of LBJ during his presidency.  He addressed her as "Bird."

It would be interesting if there was a connexion to the ladybug, i.e. beetles of the Family Coccinellidae, those aphid-munching friends of wildflowers.  In Britain they are more commonly called by the old medieval name, "ladybird beetle," in honor of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady, who was believed to send them to rid grapevines (in medieval England?) of insect pests.  It is hard to imagine that Lady Bird Johnson's parents had had that history in mind.  But surely this can all be found out fairly quickly and easily.

To Sort of like an AUK: Yes indeed, Ann Richards and Molly Ivins were very special people too, in a way quite different from that of Lady Bird.  I think highly now of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, of your 18th district.  She spoke often and well during the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton.

To David SG: Austin has a national reputation as being the only really progressive-ish place in the state, which as we know is not a small one, even though Dick Cheney's buddy, the one he shot in the face, was said to live in Austin.

Thanks to a recent series in the PBS show on home reconstruction, "This Old House," regular viewers have learned that Austin is at the leading edge of green building.  In a way reminiscent of the Kennedy-Johnson alliance in 1960, the Boston-based TOH people focused on the remodeling and expansion of an upscale bungalow, in what they call their "Austin Project."  The job was required by the homeowners to make use of only green materials, especially recycled ones, and it included as well an installation of solar panels.  I was most impressed not only by how experts and procurers of those materials were in good supply in Austin, but also by how the salvaging for the re-use of discarded materials was a serious business.  See:

http://www.pbs.org/thisoldhouse/home/

As it happens, they have up right now the video segment of a visit by Roger Cooke, their very learned gardening expert, to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.