Harry Middleton | LBJ speechwriter, 95

Harry Middleton, 95, a former speechwriter to Lyndon B. Johnson and later the longtime director of his presidential library, has died.

LBJ Presidential Library spokeswoman Anne Wheeler said Mr. Middleton died Friday. A former journalist who once worked for the Associated Press, Middleton was hired toward the end of Johnson's presidency in 1967 and followed him back to Texas after leaving the White House.

He wrote two books with Johnson and went on to run his presidential library from 1970 until 2002. Luci Baines Johnson said her father's friend was "universally admired and loved."

The LBJ Library helped declassify hundreds of thousands of records from the Johnson administration under Mr. Middleton, including documents pertaining to the Vietnam War. - AP