Horace Busby

Horace Busby (1965)

Horace Wooten Busby Jr. ( March 10, 1924 in Fort Worth , Texas  -  May 31, 2000 in Santa Monica , California ) was an American publicist , speechwriter , consultant, and public relations expert . He was considered one of Lyndon B. Johnson's closest confidants before and during his tenure as President of the United States .

Family of origin

Horace Busby was born in Fort Worth on March 10, 1924. He had a brother (Eldon B.) and a sister (Willie Mae). His father Horace Wooten Busby (1884-1965) was a Church of Christ preacher and evangelist who was active in many states of the United States , particularly in Texas and Oklahoma . Horace Wooten Busby Jr.'s great-grandfather was one of the elders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church . His mother Viola Mae, née Wise, (1886–1967) was also an Evangelical Christian.

School and study

Horace Busby first attended the Lorenzo de Zavala Eighth Ward Elementary School in Fort Worth. During the second half of the 1930s he was a junior high school student . During this time he suffered from asthma and other illnesses for two years that made it impossible for him to go to school. However, he successfully took the exams. While still at school, he developed a keen interest in domestic politics, which at the time was dominated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal , and in international politics. He followed her on Time , Life, and the radio . In June 1941 he graduated from Paschal High School in Fort Worth.

From 1941 to 1946 he studied in Fort Worth at Texas Christian University without a degree. During his studies he worked as editor of the student magazine The Daily Texan . Busby, who admired Roosevelt, showed a clearly liberal profile and defended the freedom of teaching . The background was in particular the dismissal of Homer P. Rainey in November 1944. The President of Texas Christian University had campaigned for reform-oriented professors who had been fired by the university management in 1942 because they had spoken out in favor of New Deal programs. Rainey had also protested against attempts to ban the reading of certain books at the university.

Employment

After graduating from school, he worked intermittently at a radio station in Fort Worth.

After leaving the university, he worked from 1947 to 1948 as a journalist for the news agency International News Service . From mid-March 1948 he worked for Lyndon Johnson, shortly before the latter decided to run for a position in the US Senate . This started a collaboration in which Busby, also known by friends as Buzz , often served "as LBJ's other me". Johnson made Busby a member of his team after his election victory. When Johnson Chairman of the 1950 newly established subcommittee was that with the readiness of US forces dealt (Armed Services Subcommittee Preparedness) , Busby was one of his assistants and served as editor of reports of this Senate committee.

In 1953, Busby worked for Price Daniel , also a senator for the state of Texas; from 1954 to 1957 he worked as a freelance advisor and publicist with offices in Austin (Texas) and Washington, DC. The collaboration with Johnson became closer again when Busby entered the Senate Armed Services Committee, particularly on issues relating to the American one Space program advised. Lyndon Johnson chaired this committee.

During the time of Johnson's Vice Presidency (1961–1963) Busby accompanied him on his trips abroad. It was also Busby who rounded off the text of the speech Johnson delivered on the Gettysburg battlefield on July 4, 1963 , exactly 100 years after Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address , to urge progress in enforcing the civil rights of African Americans .

From November 1963 to September 1965 he worked as a special assistant to the president and cabinet secretary. He helped draft a series of addresses Lyndon Johnson delivered as President of the United States. This included speeches on the Great Society , Johnson's domestic policy reform program. Among the important speeches also counted Let Us Continue , Johnson's first speech as the 36th President of the United States on November 27, 1963, five days after the deadly attack on his predecessor John F. Kennedy , and also the televised address in which Johnson on the 31st March 1968 on the one hand announced the stop of the bombing of North Vietnam and on the other hand announced that he would not be run for re-election. As early as January 14, 1968, the President had informed him in confidence that he would not be available for another term of office.

After 1969 he worked in Washington as a management consultant, political analyst and publisher. He edited the newsletters The American Businessman and The Busby Papers , among others . The clients of his management consultancy included Mobil Oil and American Airlines , for example .

Private life

Horace Busby was a member of the Church of Christ. He was married to Mary V. Alves. The marriage ended in divorce. He had a son (Scott) and two daughters (Betsy and Leslie). Like Johnson, Busby was a heavy smoker. In 1997 he moved to Santa Monica, California . He died there three years later.

Publications

• The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
• Reflections on a Leader . In: Kenneth Winfred Thompson (Ed.): The Johnson presidency. Twenty intimate perspectives of Lyndon B. Johnson . Lanham, Md, University Press of America, 1987, ISBN 0-8191-5554-3 , pp. 251-270.

Web links

Commons : Horace Busby  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Oral Histories - Horace Busby , transcript of oral history interviews with Horace Busby from the 1980s. Site of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum
• Finding aid of the folders and files by Horace Busby in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Eric Pace: Horace Busby, 76, Ex-White House Aide and Johnson Adviser. In: The New York Times . June 3, 2000, accessed May 9, 2021 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Adam Bernstein: LBJ Adviser Horace 'Buzz' Busby Jr., 76, Dies. In: The Washington Post . June 1, 2000, accessed May 9, 2021 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} The White House: Biographic Information on Horace Busby (July 22, 1968, press release ), copy in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library .
4. ↑ ^{a b} LBJ Speechwriter Horace Busby Dies. In: ap news . June 2, 2000, accessed May 9, 2021 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Loyd L. Smith: The Life Of Horace W. Busby. In: therestorationmovement.com. Retrieved May 9, 2021 (first published in Christian Worker , June 1979). 
6. ↑ Item: Horace W. Busby. In: UTA Libraries Digital Gallery . Accessed May 9, 2021 . 
7. ^ History of the Restoration Movement. Horace Wooton Busby. In: therestorationmovement.com. Retrieved May 9, 2021 . 
8. ^ Hugh Sidey: Introduction . In: Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, pp. Xv, ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
9. ↑ Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, p. 52, ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
10. ↑ Transcript, Horace Busby Oral History Interview I , April 23, 1981, interviewed by Michael L. Gillette , LBJ Library , pp. 39-41.
11. ^ Item: Paschal High School reunion, class officers of 1941. In: UTA Libraries Digital Gallery. Retrieved May 9, 2021 . 
12. ^ Robert A. Caro : Master of the Senate ( The years of Lyndon Johnson , Volume 3). Alfred A. Knopf, New York City 2002, p. 125, ISBN 0-394-52836-0 .
13. ^ Margaret A. Nash, Jennifer AR Silverman: "An Indelible Mark": Gay Purges in Higher Education in the 1940s . In: History of Education Quarterly . tape 55 , no. 4 , 2015, p. 441–459, here p. 445 ( online [PDF]).
14. ↑ Homer Price Rainey, 89, dies; Educator in '44 Texas dispute. In: The New York Times. December 20, 1985, accessed May 13, 2021 . 
15. ^ Transcript, Horace Busby Oral History Interview I , April 23, 1981, interviewed by Michael L. Gillette , LBJ Library , p. 2.
16. ↑ Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, p. 70, ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
17. ↑ Eric Frederick Goldman: The tragedy of Lyndon Johnson . Macdonald, London 1969. Quoted from Scott Busby: Preface . In: Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, p. Viii ( online reference ), ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
18. ^ Donald C. Cook: Senate Preparedness Subcommittee . In: University of Chicago Law Review . tape 18 , no. 3 , 1951, pp. 634-646, here p. 634 ( online ).
19. ^ AP : Joins White House Staff. In: The New York Times. April 4, 1964, accessed May 14, 2021 . 
20. ↑ Johnson's Men: 'Valuable Hunks of Humanity'. In: The New York Times. May 3, 1964, accessed May 17, 2021 . 
21. ^ Robert A. Caro: The Passage of Power ( The Years of Lyndon Johnson , Volume 4). Alfred A. Knopf, New York City 2012, pp. 255 f., ISBN 978-0-679-40507-8 .
22. ^ Ashley Barrett: Lyndon B. Johnson, "Let Us Continue" (November 27, 1963) (PDF) In: Voices of Democracy 4 (2009), pp. 97-119.
23. ↑ Johnson's televised address on March 31, 1986 . The speech was recorded on the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum YouTube channel . Retrieved June 9, 2021.
24. ↑ Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, pp. 172-180, ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
25. ↑ Brief description of Busby on the Macmillan Publishers website , accessed May 20, 2021.
26. ↑ Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, no page number (based on p. 250, online reference ), ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .
27. ↑ Andrew Rawnsley: A bully with some beef. In: The Guardian . August 11, 2002, accessed May 21, 2021 . 
28. ^ Hugh Sidey: Introduction . In: Horace Busby: The thirty-first of March. An intimate portrait of Lyndon Johnson's final days in office . Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2005, p. Xvi ( online reference ) ISBN 978-0-374-27574-7 .