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- <text id=91TT0620>
- <title>
- Mar. 25, 1991: American Notes:Texas
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Mar. 25, 1991 Boris Yeltsin:Russia's Maverick
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 25
- American Notes
- TEXAS
- End of an Empire
- </hdr><body>
- <p> When he died in 1973, former President Lyndon Johnson left
- behind an assortment of thriving Texas broadcast and real
- estate properties that in 1985 was valued at more than $100
- million. But now the LBJ Co., owned almost entirely by the
- Johnson family, is being dismantled for far less, a victim of
- the state's economic bust. KLBJ AM-FM, the highly profitable
- Austin radio station once valued at $27 million, is on the
- block for $13.5 million. Thirty cable-TV systems may bring $50
- million.
- </p>
- <p> The sell-off was hastened by the illness and retirement of
- CEO Donald Thomas, LBJ's lawyer, who ran the financial empire
- single-handedly for years. Neither Lady Bird Johnson, 78, nor
- daughters Lynda and Luci, who live far from Texas, are prepared
- to ride herd on the business. Besides, the seven Johnson
- grandchildren, who hold stakes in the company through their
- trusts, are growing up. "It's generational change," said family
- spokesman George Christian. "Everything dictated that they all
- go their separate ways." And probably quite comfortably: all
- the properties being offered are free of debt.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-