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LBJ and Lady Bird Love Letters Released

Future president proposed within days of meeting future wife.

It’s Valentine’s Day! Here to regale us with one of history’s greatest romances is none other than our 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson. Starting at 9 a.m., love letters between LBJ and his wife, Claudia Alta Taylor, or Lady Bird Johnson, will be released by the LBJ Presidential Library. Nearly 90 letters written during two and a half months in 1934 will be made available on the library's website, the first time the entire collection has been released. When the 26-year-old LBJ met the 21-year-old Lady Bird, the young congressional aide from Texas proposed to the University of Texas history and journalism graduate after just a few days, much to her shock. He eventually won her over. “Dearly Beloved,” Lady Bird begins one letter. “This sounds like a sermon—it isn’t.”