Lady Bird Johnson and John Luke Hill

Two great and very interesting Texans died this week and Texas is worse off without them.

I knew John Hill better then I did with Mrs. Johnson. Hill was a former Secretary of State, Attorney General and Chief Justice. Along the way he was a defeated Democratic candidate for Governor

Mrs. Johnson was the woman behind the man and the one person who could keep LBJ civil with other folks. The last time I talked to her was a fund raiser at her Wildflower Center and my date was the one with the big check. So we sat at Lady Bird's table and she sat directly across from me and in the way was a large bouquet of flowers. As we were discussing her grandson, (who I had recently seen) she and I had to move our heads to one side or the other just to see one another. She finally asked that the flowers be moved. I found it interesting that the once person in the whole U.S. who started the wildflower movement had to had some flowers moved just we could converse.

My old friend George Christian was a long time friend and sometimes staffer for the Johnson's. He was LBJ's Press Secretary. George is gone but while he was alive he keep close contract with Mrs. Johnson and always had the nicest things to say about her. In today's Houston Chronicle the Secret Service agents who protected her gave the same review. A very nice lady according to everyone.

John Hill was a Democrat until he decided to leave the Supreme Court and allow the then GOP Governor Bill Clements to appoint a Republican to the bench. That caused a major break with the leaders of the Democratic Party. They never forgave him for doing that.

John wanted to change the way Texas selected Judges, and as I recalled in my comments about the death of Johnny Crooker, I was hired to help make that change. It is a shame to see both John and Johnny gone and the system still the same. Partisan election of Judges is bad in that it changes the judiciary as political winds change. See the results Dallas County last election if you wonder what that means. So John Hill practiced law and worked to change the way Judges were selected. He stayed active in politics and over the years supported both Democrats and Republicans. He was a great Texas politico and would have made a great Governor and that would have changed Texas for the better.