President Lyndon Johnson: Health and Medical History

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Maladies & Conditions · height · infarct #1 · ER angina · type A personality · daily naps · cholecystectomy · sudden death

Odds & Ends · Doctors · Resources · Cited Sources

Maladies and Conditions

This style...	... means the event occurred while President.
height	Johnson was six feet, three and a half inches tall 1a.
infarct #1	Big myocardial infarction (heart attack) in the 1950s. He would probably have been in his 40s. Since that time, was always afraid of being alone 2a.
ER angina	One resident physician at Parkland, who was on his way to the emergency room after Kennedy was brought in on November 22, 1963, later wrote: As I turned to continue to Trauma Room 1, there was Lyndon Johnson, being ushered into one of the minor-medicine cubicles... His face was ashen, and he was holding his chest. Only recently, he had had a coronary, and I was afraid he was having another heart attack. 3a
type A personality	Type A personality if there ever was one. But Johnson loved it. "I don't have ulcers. I give them!" 4a
daily naps	"Napped every workday as President" 5a (no primary source given).
cholecystectomy	He was a man who was not afraid to show his healing cholecystectomy scar to the press. Famous political cartoon of scar drawn as a map of Viet Nam.
sudden death	Had sudden unexpected death. He was alone. He was found stretched out on his bed, reaching for the telephone [Califano]

Odds and Ends

In May 1966, LBJ received a note from his cook: "Mr. President, you have been my boss for a number of years and you always tell me you want to lose weight, and yet you never do very much to help yourself. Now I'm going to be your boss for a change. Eat what I put in front of you and don't ask for any more and don't complain." 4b
Johnson visited the impoverished west African nation of Senegal while Vice President. "Against the advice of the ambassador, who urged him [Johnson] to shun contacts with villagers he [ambassador] described as dirty and diseased, Johnson visited a fishing village, where he handed out pens and lighters, shook hands with everyone, including some fingerless lepers, and urged the uncomprehending natives to be like Texans, who had increased their annual income tenfold in forty years" 1b.
Johnson's official portrait was painted by a man named Heard. It is regarded in some circles, at least, to render Johnson ugly. Thus, a quip arose: "Presidential artists should be seen around the White House, but not Heard" 6.
While Senate Majority Leader, Johnson needed a vote from a senator who had been rendered mute by disease (?stroke ?brain tumor). Johnson had the senator wheeled onto the Senate floor, and then had him point to his eye ("aye") when it came time to vote 2b.
To hold down egg prices, Johnson had the Surgeon General issue a warning about the cholesterol content of eggs 2c.

Doctors

Before Presidency	In Congress (maybe)	During Presidency	After Presidency
J. Willis Hurst James C. Cain Howard Burchell	George Calver	James M. Young J. Willis Hurst James C. Cain	J. Willis Hurst James C. Cain

Resources

Ampres Series

Peters

20 reviews

Updegrove

91 reviews

Kansas Series

Bornet

4 reviews

Goodwin

292 reviews

Caro Series

Caro

483 reviews

Caro Series

Caro

483 reviews

Caro Series

Caro

379 reviews

Caro Series

Caro

779 reviews

Cited Sources

Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963. Boston: Little, Brown, 2003.

a p.354 b pp.349-350

218 reviews

Califano, Joseph A. The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon B. Johnson. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

a p.28 b pp.54-55 c pp.137-138

Crenshaw, Charles A.; Hansen, Jens; Shaw, J. Gray. JFK: Conspiracy of Silence. New York: Signet, 1992.

a p.76

34 reviews

Comment: This book has been roundly criticized by other physicians involved in the Kennedy case.

Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

a p.309 b p.323

14 reviews

DeFrank, Thomas M. Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2007.

a p.225

85 reviews

Pachter, Marc. [remark made while interviewing Mark Updegrove]. Booktv. C-SPAN2, 5 November 2006.

Comment: Pachter was at the time Director of the National Portrait Gallery.

Other Sources

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Health and Medical History of President Lyndon Johnson

Health and Medical History of President
Lyndon Johnson