It takes a lot of effort to make Houston beautiful.

For Elyse Lanier, the former first lady of Houston, it was a job she took on personally. “The city has never been ugly. It’s kind of like a woman that’s pretty and needs to be fixed up.”

Lanier made her platform beautification when her husband, Mayor Bob Lanier, was in office.

She says Lady Bird Johnson was her example. “She’s the type of person that would really inspire you. You would see what she was doing and you would want to do the same thing.”

The efforts continue today with groups like Keep Houston Beautiful.

The organization sponsors monthly cleanups and other projects like planting trees along Highway 288 which is near downtown.

Keep Houston Beautiful averages about 400 projects a year or about eight every weekend.

But those who knew Lady Bird Johnson best say that when it comes to maintaining beautification every individual has to do to their part.

“We had way too many billboards...we had 10 to 11,000 in our city,” said former city councilmember Eleanor Tinsley.

Tinsley, who helped cut that number in half, says she never met Lady Bird Johnson but felt her influence. “She did want to beautify. She wanted to make better our state. And, she, I think has a real legacy.”

A legacy from a first lady who believed in the environment and in that respect was ahead of her time.