Restaurants needed a kick to be mindful of the environment. Here's who provided it.

The restaurant industry cursed her at the time, but Lady Bird Johnson served up some tough love in the 1960s that’s arguably still paying benefits to the business today. She moved the nation’s fight against highway litter and garish roadside billboard from the margins to the mainstreams, forcing the public and the industry to change some decidedly litterbug ways.

In the process, the genteel Texan with a core of steel forever changed the role of First Lady, from a passive plus-one to her spouse, to an activist wielding the power of her position to pursue a cause.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind for a look at an often overlooked development that some regard as the spark that led to the environmental consciousness we see in the industry today.