President Johnson Gives a Magnolia Blossom to Peggy Fleming

In this photograph, taken by Yoichi R. Okamoto on March 27, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson pins a saucer magnolia flower to the lapel of figure skating champion Peggy Fleming in the Oval Office. Johnson plucked the blossom for Fleming from a saucer magnolia tree in the Rose Garden. The 19-year-old figure skater earned a gold medal in the ladies' singles competition at the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. President Johnson invited Fleming and her mother Doris to the Oval Office, where he presented the Olympic champion with a gold bangle and pinned the magnolia blossom to her lapel. Later in her career, Fleming headed a figure skating group that performed for President Jimmy Carter during a Christmas party for White House staff on December 22, 1980.