She played major roles in promoting and expanding the National Institutes of Health, helping its budget expand by a factor of 2000 times from $2.4 million in 1945 to $5.5 billion in 1985. Lasker was prominent in lobbying Eleanor Roosevelt to endorse Lyndon Johnson's efforts to become the 1960 Democratic nominee. Lady Bird Johnson wrote about Lasker numerous times in her book A White House Diary, calling her house "charming ... like a setting for jewels" and thanking her for gifts of daffodil bulbs for parkways along the Potomac River and for thousands of azalea bushes, flowering dogwood and other plants to put along Pennsylvania Avenue. Lasker was also instrumental in getting the US government to fund the War on Cancer in 1971. Braniff Airways Board Member On September 15, 1971, Mrs. Lasker was elected to the Board of Directors of Braniff Airways, Incorporated. She became only the second female board member of Braniff following Braniff cofounder Thomas Elmer Braniff's wife, Bess Clark Braniff, who was elected to the board after the untimely death of her husband in January 1954. Mary Lasker's appointment to the Braniff board was rare and she joined a very small group of women who were directors at large American corporations. Awards and recognition Mary Lasker is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, the Four Freedoms Award 1987 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1989. The Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service was renamed in her honour in 2000. On May 14, 2009 the United States Postal Service honored Lasker with the issuance of a stamp of face value 78 cents, designed by Mark Summers. The stamp was released, in part, as recognition of a renewed US government commitment to funding of biomedical research. A release ceremony was held in Lasker's hometown on May 15, 2009. Organizations Birth Control Federation of America Planned Parenthood National Committee for Mental Hygiene Lasker Foundation National Health Education Foundation National Institutes of Health American Cancer Society Research to Prevent Blindness Cancer Research Institute United Cerebral Palsy Research and Education Foundation Museum of Modern Art American Heart Association See also Albert Lasker - Husband Cancer (2015 PBS film) History of cancer Lasker Award - given out by the Foundation The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer References Sources The Mary Lasker Papers External links Notable New Yorkers - Mary Lasker Biography, photographs, and interviews