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"More Than Any Other." Johnson also noted the passing of India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Said the President: "Perhaps more than any other world leader, he has given expression to man's yearning for peace. In this fearless pursuit of a world free from war, he has served all humanity."
From New York, Johnson flew to Texas to deliver the commencement address for 30 graduates of Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Johnson City. When Lyndon graduated as president of the six-member class of 1924, it was known simply as Johnson City High.
The return put Johnson in a reminiscent mood. Said he: "Forty years ago almost to this very night, I left my high school diploma at home and headed west to seek the fame and fortune I knew America offered. I came back because I realized that the place to really begin was the place I had been all the time. I cannot tell you what the future will be, any more than I could have predicted, when I sat in your place, that I would be standing here tonight. But I know it can be a place in which, in a thousand towns like Johnson City, a boy, young in years, but deep in dreams, can hope to come forth and take his place among the leaders of the world."