Claudia Taylor was born in Karnack, Texas, in 1912. Her father, the son of a sharecropper, had come into success as a storekeeper and eventual landowner. He was so successful that, by the time Claudia was born, the family lived in a large brick house on the outskirts of town. And the father realized that his daughter was a sharp one from an early age. The situation with her was, however, that she was painfully shy.

Oh, even someone calling out to her on the street of her hometown made Claudia blush and run into a store to avoid having to speak. She felt awkward and ugly (even though she was neither, in reality). And, her father, in his wisdom, decided that his daughter should get an education because of her intellect and, well, because it would give Claudia confidence. So, since there was no high school in town, Mr. Taylor sent Claudia to a nearby town 15 miles away for her high school education. Now, that was rare in the 1920s that rural women in Texas would get an education, but, again, Claudia herself was rare.

But the shyness stayed with her. She realized that high school was no challenge intellectually early on, and soon had the best grades in the school. When she realized that graduating at the top of her class would mean that she would have to make a speech as the valedictorian, Claudia purposefully did poorly her last semester so that her grades would sink and therefore force anther student to have to speak.

Then, it was time for college. At first, she went out of state, but she grew homesick and returned to Texas. Back home, she found a private girls college where she received her A.A. degree, then she transferred to the University of Texas in Austin. And that’s where Claudia began to bloom. She earned two degrees there, one in education and one in journalism. You see, Claudia wanted to be a reporter. She was great with words on paper even if not speaking, and she felt free to express herself on the page. And her confidence grew.

But it was also in Austin that she met a man who would become her husband. He was the opposite of her–brash, loud, and never met a stranger. And he swept Claudia off her feet. She later said that he was the flame and she was the moth. And then, as he first began work, went off to war in World War 2, and then returned to continue his career, Claudia continue to blossom. She inherited money from her father, and, despite her husband’s misgivings, she began to make shrewd investments with the funds she received. Calling back to her journalism degree, Claudia began buying radio stations during World War 2, a time when people were needing money. She knew that the war would end, and that radio stations would return. After the war, Claudia was also on the cutting edge of journalism by purchasing some of the first TV stations in Texas.

This shy woman’s investments proved so successful and ahead of their time that she parlayed the initial $41,000 she received from her father into over $1,500,000. She became a millionaire with no financial help from her husband. Oh, and, by the way, Claudia had taken $10,000 of that initial inheritance money and financed her husband as he began his career…as a politician.

You see, Claudia Taylor was known by another name for most of her life.

And like most people, her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson, called her Lady Bird.