If you mention the name Jean Schuler to many involved with the Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance, they’ll tell you she’s a very talented artist responsible for the design and ‘bootiful’ artwork on three of Wimberley’s boots about town. Very few would guess that she’s also one of the Texas Hill Country’s newest published authors.
Prior to COVID-19, you could find Schuler serving as a volunteer at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum on the University of Texas campus. She worked the front desk on Sundays for a few years, developing a knowledge of LBJ and Lady Bird as well as a fascination about the first couple.
Being native to Austin and understanding the relaxed nature of central Texas get-togethers, Schuler became inquisitive about what visits to the ranch would look like during Johnson’s presidency.
“I was really curious about Lady Bird. I’d wondered about the differences of how she entertained with the formal conditions full of politicians at the White House to such casual events as the barbecues that Walter Jettons, the famous barbecue pitmaster, did down in Johnson City on the Pedernales River.”
Schuler’s research uncovered nothing of note regarding the matter. She spent hours requesting information from the archives to piece together interesting details.
“The Johnson’s notoriously saved everything. Both of their daughters — Lynda and Luci — were married in the White House and there’s a very thin sliver of Luci’s wedding cake in the archives on the tenth floor,” shared Schuler. “When I was 11 years old, I wrote a letter to President Johnson so I asked the archivist if they’d saved that. I gave her a little information and she went upstairs and I swear to you, 15 minutes later, she came back with my letter.”
Schuler got deep into the research once she learned the process of how to request access to the information. It started with recipes then moved to stories and notes regarding specific events. The goal was to find out how differently the Johnsons entertained between the White House and the Texas White House but the information varied and went way afield of her initial intentions.
“I really loved it. I didn’t know that I was so interested in how Lady Bird and Lyndon operated but coming across all these really funny stories opened a door for my curiosity,” Schuler added. “They’re in the book. The one thing I’ve gotten out of writing this book I didn’t expect was when people say ‘I love your book and I have this Johnson story.’ I was surprised and had no idea how many people have some story about Lyndon Johnson or Lady Bird.”
What Schuler discovered was a void in the chronicles of the Johnson’s history regarding life and interactions during his presidency in Gillespie County.
“I thought it’d be fun to put some recipes together but the book has a lot more than recipes. It’s got a lot of really funny short stories and a huge list of accomplishments. Lyndon was really an amazing politician.”
Schuler reminisced about her ties to the Wimberley community.
“I like painting on a big scale so I’d have to say those boots are really fun. The fact that the boots were six feet tall really appealed to me. Then there’s instant gratification from the boot since I painted on the projects for just a couple of months each. But this book, I worked on an awful lot for seven or eight years.”
The most frequent question Schuler gets at book signings and by email is simple: “Have you made every recipe in the book?”
“No, I have not but I am working on it,” Schuler noted. “I do have a few favorites, though. There’s a squash and shrimp casserole that’s really good. And there’s Lady Bird’s Lace cookies. One of LBJ’s favorites were Wheaties cookies.”
Johnson was infamous for his love of sugar so desserts were a big deal for the first couple. “He loved pies and her homemade bread. He loved Lady Bird’s peach jam. I even read stories where he’d just get a spoon out and put it in the jelly dish and eat the whole thing.”
These stories and more fascinating excerpts, recipes, anecdotes and events are available in Schuler’s book — At the Table with LBJ and Lady Bird: History, Humor, and True Texas Recipes — published in November of last year. Copies are available online at Amazon, Half Price Books and other bookstores.
JEAN SCHULER AT A BOOK SIGNING NEAR AUSTIN. PHOTO BY GAIL WHEELIS.
