Best Chronicler of a Gracious Life

Janet Wilson

Summing up a life is never easy, but when the life was as rich in event and character as that of Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson – the woman the world knew as Lady Bird – the challenges are all the greater. Austin American-Statesman writer Janet Wilson had the unenviable task of distilling the 94 years of the former First Lady, environmentalist, mother, and grandmother into a handful of column inches on a newsprint page, but she accomplished it with a level of class and grace reminiscent of her subject. Her series of articles after Lady Bird's passing captured not just what Lady Bird did but why she deserved our affection and respect, not just the facts of her life but who she was in all her intelligence, compassion, spirit, Southern charm, and graciousness.

Janet Wilson
Austin American-Statesman
305 S. Congress
www.statesman.com