LBJ Museum of San Marcos’ Fall Lecture to feature TXST distinguished professor

Roseann M. Mandziuk, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University, will deliver the LBJ Museum of San Marcos’ Fall Lecture.

The museum’s event is set for Thursday, Oct. 27, beginning at 6 p.m. with a reception followed by the lecture at 6:30 p.m. LBJ Museum Board President Wayne Kraemer invited the public to attend Mandziuk’s presentation entitled “Recipes and Reconciliation: Lady Bird Johnson’s 1964 Whistlestop Tour.”

“We hope you will join us for our Fall Lecture. Dr. Roseann Mandziuk’s presentation will be a fascinating look at Lady Bird Johnson’s whistle stop tour on The Lady Bird Special during the fall of 1964,” Kraemer said. “Lady Bird’s determination during those tumultuous times demonstrated the heretofore untested political prowess of the First Lady on the national stage. We hope you will join us for this wonderful event.”

Lady Bird Johnson went on a four-day, 1,628-mile campaign on a 19-car train named the “Lady Bird Special,” where she delivered 47 speeches in 47 towns, speaking to approximately 500,000 people. The LBJ Museum said Mandziuk’s presentation will examine how Lady Bird Johnson used the “rhetorical appeal of her southern roots to influence public sentiments and attempt to bind the wounds caused by her husband’s sponsorship of civil rights legislation.”

“Lady Bird’s evocation of the southern woman provided her with the rhetorical resources to engage in an argument of reconciliation with southern white voters,” the museum said in a news release. “The political persona she embodied also subtly broadened the rhetorical boundaries of the first lady role.”

Mandziuk is currently a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University where her research focuses on “images of women, the rhetorical uses of history, and the construction of public memory,” the museum said.

Mandziuk is also the co-author of “Sojourner Truth: Wit, Story, and Song.” She has published essays and book chapters examining historical and contemporary rhetoric, and served as editor of Women’s Studies in Communication. Mandziuk has received two Fulbright Scholar Awards in India and Poland.

She’s the past President of the Southern States Communication Association and current President of the National Communication Association.

The LBJ Museum’s Fall Lecture is free and open to the public. The museum asks that all attendees sign up for the event either by calling the museum at 512-353-3300, emailing director@LBJmuseum.com, or visiting the museum’s website at https://lbljmuseum.com/event.