AUSTIN (AP) — Bob Hardesty, a top speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson, has died in Austin at the age of 82.
According to a statement from the LBJ Presidential Library, Hardesty suffered congestive heart failure when he died Monday.
A native of St. Louis, Mo., Hardesty attended George Washington University and became a reporter for the Army Times. He wrote speeches for Democrats in the 1964 election and the Johnson Administration hired him afterward. When Johnson returned to Austin, Hardesty helped Johnson write his memoir.