LBJ Museum of San Marcos Swings for Texas Natural Festival
SAN MARCOS – A special exhibit titled “Return to the ‘30s and ‘40s: LBJ and San Marcos During the Early Texas Swing Era” will open Saturday, May17, just in time for San Marcos’ 20th annual downtown Texas Natural Festival and Western Swing Hall of Fame show.
The San Marcos festival is scheduled Saturday, May 17, 2008 from 10 a.m. to -5:30 p.m. on the downtown square. At 7:30 p.m., the action moves to the San Marcos Plaza Park by the San Marcos River for the Western Swing Hall of Fame show and awards presentation.
According to Museum Director Scott Jordan, a wall display will focus on the start of the 36th U.S. President’s political career and his work with the National Youth Administration and rural electrification. An audio "backdrop" of music from some of the original Texas Swing recordings will allow visitors to hear the music that got its start in Texas in the 1930s.
The LBJ Museum of San Marcos, located on Guadalupe Street, directly across from the Hays County Court House, fills a special niche in the Johnson legacy. It celebrates the President’s days in San Marcos while attending what is now Texas State University-San Marcos and his days as a public school teacher in Cotulla. The museum is open to the public from 1 to 5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
In addition to the special exhibit, Jordan says he and members of the museum’s board of directors and other volunteers will have a little bit of the museum on the courthouse lawn via the “traveling trunk” he has assembled.
For more information about the special weekend activities, contact Kelly Franks at the San Marcos Main Street Office at 512-393-8430. For more information on the LBJ Museum of San Marcos, contact Jordan at 512-353-3300.
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Photo Caption:
1941 CAMPAIGN PHOTO – On June 28, 1941, the future President Lyndon B. Johnson campaigned for the U.S. Senate in his home territory – Johnson City, Texas. Pictured behind him were his mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. This is one of the photographs from the ‘30s and ‘40s that will be part of the LBJ Museum of San Marcos’ special exhibit that opens Saturday, May 17. (LBJ Library Photo by the Austin Statesman)
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