It is nearly impossible to escape the shadow of Lyndon B. Johnson in Texas — and as a young boy, playwright Robert Schenkkan never tried.

The 36thpresident of the United States was his childhood hero.

Growing up in the heart of Austin — Johnson’s birthplace and hometown — Schenkkan was never far from the LBJ Presidential Library or the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and “everyone you ran into knew LBJ or had a handful of LBJ stories,” he said, including his parents. “When I grew up in my house, LBJ was one of the good guys,” Schenkkan said. The family cheered on the incumbent through the Johnson-Galore election. But just two years later, relations in Vietnam “ramped up in an extraordinary manner,” he said. And the eldest Schenkkan brother was nearing draft age. To read more, click here.