Lady Bird Johnson buried in Texas

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Hundreds of people have attended a burial service in Texas for the wife of former US President Lyndon B Johnson.

Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, widely known as Lady Bird Johnson, died on Wednesday of natural causes aged 94.

She was buried next to her husband at a small cemetery at the LBJ Ranch, about 50 miles (80km) from Austin.

On Saturday, some 1,800 people, including former US presidents and first ladies attended Lady Bird Johnson's private funeral in Austin.

Her husband - who was the US president from 1963 to1969 - died in 1973.

'Very sad'

"So I guess this is adios, dear (grandmother), at least for now," Lady Bird Johnson's grandson Lyndon Nugent said on Sunday.

A lot of it was desperately painful, but on balance I loved it Lady Bird Johnson on her White House years <a class="" href="/1/hi/world/americas/2281304.stm">Obituary: Lady Bird Johnson</a> <a class="" href="/1/hi/in_pictures/6899307.stm">In pictures: Lady Bird funeral</a>

"Perhaps we'll be able to ride the ranch again some day with our sangrias in hand, but until then we are all very sad to see you go," he said.

Earlier, hundreds of people lined the streets to bid final goodbye to Lady Bird Johnson as the funeral cortege drove from Austin to Stonewall.

Three days of ceremonies began on Friday at the wildflower centre Lady Bird Johnson founded in 1982 to preserved native flora.

The casket was then moved to the Lyndon B Johnson library and museum at the University of Texas, where more than 11,500 paid their respects over two days.

Seeking beauty

Lady Bird Johnson was a staunch supporter of her husband's ambitious policies of civil rights and on tackling poverty.

A popular first lady, she was also one of the most influential, quietly advising her husband as he came under fire for escalating the Vietnam War, the BBC's James Westhead in Washington says.

But she was perhaps best-known as a tireless environmental campaigner, correspondents say.

She raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to beautify Washington, and the 1965 Highway Beautification Bill was known as the "Lady Bird bill".

On her years in the White House, she once recalled: "A lot of it was desperately painful, but on balance I loved it."