Texas Book Festival Line-up Announced

Author Neal Spelce in Texas Book Festival 2021

The Texas Book Festival has just announced its line-up for the 2021. The 2021 festival will be a hybrid of virtual and in-person events. I'm very pleased that my memoir, With the Bark Off will be part of this year's festival. It is a great honor to be included with such wonderful and talented authors.

I'll be sharing more news as we get closer to the big weekend! Or please Follow my social media for updates.

From Texas Book Festival: This year's lineup features nearly 200 authors, illustrators, poets, journalists, artists, chefs, and thought leaders across a diverse array of genres and topics including Chandler Baker, Oscar Cásares, Sandra Cisneros, Ann Cleeves, Tamron Hall, Nathan Harris, Louis Menand, Sam Quinones, Rumaan Alam, Mary Gaitskill, R. J. Palacio, Raj Patel, Amor Towles, Colson Whitehead, and more!

To view the complete list of authors, visit TexasBookFestival.org

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LBJ Birthday Wreath Ceremony 2021

Reflections in a Cemetery – of a Different Sort

Most visitors to a cemetery reflect about those who are buried there. Personal, private thoughts. But my recent visit to the cemetery on the LBJ Ranch where President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson are buried brought back memories about what happened at the burial events themselves. Memories that have been lying dormant, for the most part, dating as far back as 1973.

Stonewall, Texas - Burial place of President and Mrs. Johnson

Weather was an overriding factor when LBJ was buried and weather, of a different kind, 34 years later when Mrs. Johnson was laid to rest beside her husband, also was an important part of the proceedings. And, interestingly, after decades of reflection, the differing weather conditions were entirely appropriate for the lives of the former First Couple.

LBJ Library photo by Frank Wolfe

LBJ began his presidency at the moment of one of the most tragic times in American history – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His entire presidency seemed to surge forward with one controversy after another, with the US involvement in the war in Vietnam ever-present. Even after his presidency, his last public words were uttered in the LBJ Library in Austin during a sometimes-intense symposium spotlighting civil rights problems.

How fitting was the weather at the time of his burial in January 1973? It was bitterly cold, blustery, and wet in his beloved Hill Country at the LBJ Ranch. I shivered through three days of planning and supervising the burial. But the service came off without a hitch, in spite of the “appropriate” weather.

Mrs. Johnson outlived her husband by 34 years, continuing the work she began in the White House, focusing in large and small ways, on improving the environment. One of her most visible accomplishments can be seen as wildflowers emerge each spring along roadways and in the work at the University of Texas Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

The weather at the time of her burial in July 2007? A soft rain was prevalent, nourishing the Texas soil. A soft rain for a soft-spoken genteel lady who loved the outdoors her entire life. As a family spokesperson, I was asked by a reporter if the rain would spoil the services and I replied “No, Mrs. Johnson would love the rain.”

Memory is a wonderful thing. And it is very interesting how our brains recall certain details of significant developments in our lives.

Weather is such an important part of our daily lives, I guess it is not surprising that it colors our memories. But isn’t it fascinating how weather can sometimes be so appropriate?

It was an honor to deliver the keynote speech at the wreath laying ceremony honoring President Johnson's birthday.

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LBJ Library Virtual Event - October 2021

Join Me for a special Conversation hosted by

FRIENDS OF THE LBJ LIBRARY

OCT 13, 2021

11:30AM - 12:30PM

Watch the Complete Conversation:

From Friends of the LBJ Library:

What if you got a call from Lyndon Johnson to be in Washington, DC, tomorrow to take a trip around the world? If you are 25-year-old broadcast journalist Neal Spelce, you buckle up. A two-week diplomatic dream trip turned into a lifelong rollercoaster ride.

Neal Spelce recounts those memories and more in his new book With the Bark Off: A Journalist’s Memories of LBJ and a Life in the News Media October 13 at 11:30 a.m.

Mark K. Updegrove

The event will be moderated by Mark Updegrove.

This virtual event is co-hosted by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

About Neal Spelce Neal Spelce’s six-decade career has been distinguished by successes in radio, television, journalism, marketing, advertising, public relations, broadcast program syndication, public speaking, and consulting. He was a legendary news anchor and news director for KTBC-TV in Austin and gained national recognition for his live coverage of the UT Tower Sniper mass murders. Spelce was a close associate of and spokesperson for President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. He was also CEO of the company that produced the award-winning syndicated TV news programs “An American Moment™ with Charles Kuralt” and “An American Moment™ with James Earl Jones.”

Named an Outstanding Alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Communication, he holds three UT communications degrees in Radio/TV, Journalism and Speech. UT named the Neal Spelce Broadcast Journalism Studio in his honor.

About the Book

Spelce began his career as a part-time journalist in the LBJ family-owned Austin TV station in 1956, which vaulted him into a lifetime of impressive experiences with Johnson and many icons of the 20th century. The Austin-based journalist shares his candid moments with LBJ and five more U.S. presidents, including his rare interview with father and son Presidents George Bush while the three were fishing in a small bass boat on a Texas lake.

During his lengthy media career, Spelce saw Austin grow from a college town to a thriving city. Along the way, he interacted with Texas legends such as Darrell Royal, Willie Nelson, Walter Cronkite, and more, all part of entertaining stories that he tells, as LBJ liked to say, “with the bark off.”

Signed, bookplated copies of With the Bark Off are available for sale from The Store at LBJ. By purchasing your book through The Store at LBJ, you support a local cultural institution. All proceeds from sales support our programming, exhibits, and educational initiatives at the LBJ Presidential Library.

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Link to the LBJ Library Event Page:

https://bit.ly/NS_101321

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