LBJ’s iconic Stetson finds new home at Texas State
By wearing it during his time in the White House, former President Lyndon Baines Johnson helped make the Stetson Open Road cowboy hat famous.
Now Johnson’s iconic hat has come home to the late president’s alma mater, Texas State University.
Kevin Moomaw, a longtime Texas political consultant, has donated to the university a Stetson Open Road Royal Deluxe Silverbelly hat often worn by Johnson, Texas State officials said.
The hat will be on permanent display at the Lyndon B. Johnson Student Center on Texas State’s campus in San Marcos.
Moomaw was given the hat by former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who asked Moomaw to “find an appropriate home for it,” the university said.
Johnson graduated in 1930 from what was then Southwest Texas State Teachers College, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in history with a teaching certificate. Texas State is the only Texas university to have a U.S. president as an alumnus.
“It is an honor for us to receive this Stetson that belonged to President Johnson — our most distinguished alumnus,” Brooks Hull, Texas State’s vice president for university advancement, said in a statement. “We are grateful to Kevin Moomaw and former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for entrusting Texas State with this piece of Texas history.”
Johnson’s name and image are all over the San Marcos campus, including the LBJ Student Center and the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research. A bronze statue in the heart of campus depicts what Johnson might have looked like during his years at the school. The fingers on the statue’s outstretched right hand are polished bright and smooth from the countless students who have leaned against it while posing for a picture.
Johnson, who was born in Stonewall and graduated from high school in Johnson City, was the 36th president of the United States. He was vice president under John F. Kennedy and became president after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. He won a full term in 1964, serving until January 1969.