Lady Bird Johnson, RIP.

To tell the truth, I didn't really realize she was still alive.

Mr. Whited and I used to drive around Houston and whenever we'd see a field of (usually a single color of) flowers by a highway, we'd exclaim "Lady Bird's been here!" Such fields are stunning and common in Texas. Even the median strip in the middle of multi-lane highways is sometimes planted in flowers.

While I don't understand her phobia of billboards, we owe her our gratitude for realizing that it is just as easy and inexpensive to plant flowers beside the highways as it is to plant scrubgrass.

I just wish the Missouri and Arkansas highway departments would follow her lead a little more.

Farewell, grand lady of Texas. Go make Heaven's highways a little more beautiful.