03/05/2021
Seventy years ago, in 1951, Senator Lyndon Johnson acquired the 240-acre property that would become the “LBJ Ranch.”
His 80-year old Aunt Frank, a widow of nearly fifteen years, was unable to keep up the maintenance on her ranch house and the property, so she and her nephew agreed to a property swap. With $10 on the conveyance deed to “seal the bargain,” Senator Johnson got the ranch and his aunt got his boyhood home in Johnson City. She also received a $100 stipend each month for the rest of her life. She passed away ten years later at the age of 91 and was buried in the family cemetery at the LBJ Ranch.
Photo: LBJ Library by Frank Muto
[Image: Senator Johnson stands next his aunt on the porch of his Boyhood Home, 1959.]