"Here comes the bride," sang the host, a tall, genial man standing in the cabin with a highball in his hand, the very picture of relaxation. And when Lady Bird appeared, smiling tolerantly, he planted a resounding husband's kiss on her cheek. Later, he resumed his attentions to his guests—among them, two of the some dozen slightly incredulous members of the Washington press corps. They were all down on the L.B.J. ranch in Texas by invitation of the President, and it was a weekend none of them is likely to forget.
If there was any lingering doubt that Lyndon Johnson likes his press relations on the easygoing side, those doubts were removed last week. The guest list at the L.B.J. ranch seemed to be limited not so much by presidential hospitality, which was boundless, as by the number of correspondents who asked to see the President.
High-Speed Tour. Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Cartoonist Bill Mauldin asked permission to land his own plane on the ranch's landing strip. Permission granted. Scotty Reston of the New York Times called from Phoenix.
Could he come over? He could indeed. The President sent his own plane to intercept Reston and his wife in Dallas, and as a Johnsonian joke drafted Bill Mauldin as copilot. The President thoroughly relished the gag's payoff: Reston did not recognize Mauldin (TIME Cover, July 21, 1961*), and let the cartoonist carry his luggage.
Marianne Means, White House correspondent for the Hearst papers, popped in on presidential invitation and had a hard time getting away. Johnson made her add her name, alongside Konrad Adenauer's, Ludwig Erhard's and John F. Kennedy's, to the "friendship stone" embedded in a ranch walk. He insisted that she sit next to him at dinner. Before a flight of three helicopters left the ranch, he sent Presidential Aide Jack Valenti over to pluck Marianne from one chopper and reinstall her in the President's.
Tom Wicker of the New York Times, Phil Potter of the Baltimore Sun and Douglas Kiker of the New York Herald Tribune were invited for a fish fry. Next morning Wicker was taken on a ride in the presidential Lincoln. Chauffeur: Lyndon B. Johnson. Velocity: up to 70 m.p.h. TIME'S Hugh Sidey got a chicken dinner and a boat ride up the lower Colorado River. Guide: Lyndon B. Johnson. The Restons' visit became practically a family outing. Learning that Reston's son Richard, a Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, was in Austin, Johnson ordered Presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger to round him up.