By DAVE MONTGOMERY
Star-Telegram Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The scrawled message was simple and heartfelt.
"Mrs. Johnson. We love you and will miss you. You are a great American. Rest in peace."
The brief tribute from Rodney Johnson of Arlington, Va., was the first entry in a book of remembrances at the entrance of Lady Bird Park, a serene tree-shaded island along the Potomac River near the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.
Few places in the nation's capital embody the spirit of Lady Bird Johnson more than the island park that was named for her in 1968 as a lasting monument to her efforts to beautify Washington and the nation. On Thursday, the day after her death at age 94, visitors began gathering.
The National Park Service erected a tent and posted memory books for visitors to scribble their reflections.
Columbia Island became Lady Bird Park after the first lady's Committee for a More Beautiful Capital adorned the secluded strip of land with hundreds of dogwood trees and flowers.
By pushing a button on a marker at one of the entrances, visitors can listen as the former first lady recalls how much the island meant to her and her husband.
"This site was a special place for us," she said in the taped message. "Many times through the years, as Lyndon and I drove from Texas, we paused here to drink in the beauty of our capital city's panoramic skyline."
A centerpiece of the park is the 17-acre Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove, which was dedicated in 1976 after the president's death. The site includes a monolith of Texas granite.
Sources; Google, Star-Telegram Washington Bureau