THE ROAD has come to an end for Carl Sandburg, my friend and the good companion of millions whose own life journeys have been ennobled and enriched by his poetry.
But there is no end to the legacy he leaves us.
Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America. We knew and cherished him as the bard of democracy, the echo of the people, our conscience, and chronicler of truth and beauty and purpose.
Carl Sandburg needs no epitaph. It is written for all time in the fields, the cities, the face and heart of the land he loved and the people he celebrated and inspired.
With the world, we mourn his passing. It is our special pride and fortune as Americans that we will always hear Carl Sandburg's voice within ourselves. For he gave us the truest and most enduring vision of our own greatness.
Note: Mr. Sandburg died on July 22 at the age of at his home in Flat Rock, N.C.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the Death of Carl Sandburg. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238091