Betty S. Flowers was appointed director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, September 17. She succeeds Harry Middleton, who will officially retire at the end of October, just after his 80th birthday, and who has held the job since the library opened in 1971.
Flowers will begin the job January 7, 2002. She is now Kelleher professor of English at the University of Texas/Austin and is a widely published author and editor with particular expertise in poetry. Larry Temple, president of the LBJ Foundation, said of Flowers, “She brings to the directorship proven leadership skills and a clear concept of what the LBJ Library can and should do in the developing new world of electronic communication.”
Middleton, who had been an aide in the Johnson administration, was responsible for releasing hundreds of hours of tapes of Johnson’s phone conversations with politicians and his staff, in apparent contravention of the president’s wishes. Johnson had asked that the tapes remain sealed until 50 years after his death, but when Middleton obtained legal clearance from the National Archives and the informal blessing of Lady Bird Johnson, the materials began to be archived and made public in 1993. He told the September 16 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “I had no idea when I started this that it was going to be a 30-year adventure, but it has been that—rich, rewarding.”
Posted September 24, 2001.