Secret Service agent who protected LBJ dies in Texas

FREDERICKSBURG, Texas (AP) - Jim Hardin, a Secret Service agent who protected President Lyndon B. Johnson and his family during and after their White House years, has died in Texas. He was 80.

The LBJ Presidential Library in Austin announced Hardin's death in a statement Thursday. His son, Brad Hardin, tells The Associated Press his father died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack at his home in Fredericksburg.

Hardin was a teacher and football coach in Haltom City, Texas, when he joined the Secret Service in 1965. The library says he protected Johnson's daughter, Lynda, in 1966 when she attended the University of Texas. Hardin later joined her father's protective detail.

Hardin also protected President Richard Nixon before being assigned to the Johnson family in Texas. He retired in 1995.

Hardin's funeral was scheduled Saturday in Fredericksburg.

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