Yesterday, I noted a Catholic connection to Lady Bird Johnson: her daughter’s grand wedding at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. But it seems there was more to it than that. A family friend was at Lady Bird’s bedside when she died. A friend who happens to be a priest:

Paulist Father Robert Scott was at Johnson’s bedside when she died at approximately 4:15 p.m. Though Johnson was an Episcopalian, her daughter Luci Baines Johnson Turpin converted to Catholicism during her father’s presidency and knew Father Scott, a senior minister at St. Austin’s Parish in Austin and at the University of Texas Catholic Center.

Father Scott said July 12 that he has known Turpin and her family for 25 years. He also knew the former first lady because she attended all her grandchildren’s first Communions, graduations and confirmations. Father Scott recalled that she hosted a confirmation retreat for an entire confirmation class at the LBJ Ranch.

Father Scott said Turpin called him in the hours before her mother’s death to be with the family and to pray with them. By the time Father Scott arrived at the house, Johnson had been in a coma for about 24 hours.

With about 13 members of her family gathered in the room, Father Scott led them through the litany of the saints. When he concluded the prayer, a nurse announced that Johnson had died.

“She died very peacefully and there seemed to be a great relief in the family when she died,” Father Scott said in a telephone interview. He then prayed that Johnson’s soul be commended to God. Johnson had suffered a stroke in 2002.

May her soul and the souls of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Photo: from CNS/the Lyndon Johnson Library via Reuters