Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush
Occupation	First Lady of the United States
Spouse	George H. W. Bush

Barbara Pierce Bush (born June 8, 1925) is the wife of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, and was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of current U.S. President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Early life

Barbara Pierce was the third child of the former Pauline Robinson (1896-1949) and her husband, Marvin Pierce (1893-1969), who later became president of McCall Corporation, the publisher of the popular women's magazines Redbook and McCall's. She was born at Booth Memorial Hospital in New York City, and raised in the suburban town of Rye, New York, and went to Rye Country Day School, followed by boarding school at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina.

Her ancestor Thomas Pierce, an early New England colonist, was also an ancestor of Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States.

Her mother — whom W magazine once described as "beautiful, fabulous, critical, and meddling" and "a former beauty from Ohio with extravagant tastes" — was killed in a car accident. The accident was caused when her husband, who was driving, lost control when he reached over to stop a cup of hot coffee from sliding across the seat onto his wife. The car crashed into a stone wall, killing her instantly.

Marriage and family

Barbara Bush, center, surrounded by her family, early 1960s.

It was at a dance during Christmas vacation when she was 16 that she met George H. W. Bush, a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. One and a half years later, the two engaged, just before he went off to World War II as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot. He named three of his planes after her: Barbara, Barbara II, and Barbara III. When he returned on leave, she had dropped out of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they married. After the war, he graduated from Yale University, and they moved to Midland, Texas. She gave birth to six children:

1. George W. Bush (6 July 1946- ) 43rd President of the United States and 46th Governor of Texas
2. Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (20 December 1949 - October 11, 1953, died of leukemia);
3. John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (11 February 1953- ); 43rd Governor of Florida
4. Neil Mallon Bush (22 January 1955- );
5. Marvin Pierce Bush (22 October, 1956- )
6. Dorothy Bush Koch (August 18, 1959 - ).

Meanwhile, George H. W. Bush built a business in the oil industry, where he founded Zapata Corporation. One of the boats used in the Bay of Pigs invasion was named the Barbara J. The Bush family moved 29 times over the years. She raised her children while her husband, who served in a variety of government jobs, was away.

First Lady of the United States

File:Barbara bush interview.jpg

Barbara Bush is interviewed by Paula Zahn in 1992.

Later life

Today, she lives with her husband in Houston, Texas, and at their sprawling estate, the Bush Compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Three primary schools in Texas are named after her. One is a Houston ISD school in Houston. One Conroe ISD school in the The Woodlands in Montgomery County is named after her. A Grand Prairie ISD school in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie is also named after her. An elementary school in Mesa, Arizona's Mesa Public Schools is also named after her.

Two middle schools are named after her. One is in San Antonio in the North East ISD. One is in Irving in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.

A Harris County Public Library branch in Harris County, Texas called the Barbara Bush Library @ Cypress Creek [1] is named after her.

The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine is named after Bush. Also named for her is one of George W. Bush's twin daughters. They are frequent honored guests at the White House. She serves on the Boards of AmeriCares and the Mayo Clinic, and heads the Barbara Bush Foundation.

Controversies

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George and Barbara Bush as portrayed on The Simpsons

Barbara Bush is well-known for delivering tart comments and sometimes controversial opinions:

• In 1984 Mrs. Bush told the press that she could not say on television what she thought of Vice-Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, but "it rhymes with witch."

• In September 1990, Barbara Bush said in an interview for People Magazine that the then-brand new TV show The Simpsons was the dumbest thing she had ever seen. Six years later, she and her husband were parodied heavily in an episode of the show, titled "Two Bad Neighbors" in which they were satirized in a Dennis the Menace style context.

• Speaking about the then-tentative war on Iraq, on March 18, 2003 she told ABC's Good Morning America [2], [3]:

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

Critics said that this statement showed how callous and cold she is, while supporters countered that she was merely dismissing speculation of deaths before the Iraq War began.

• On September 5, 2005, while visiting Hurricane Katrina relief centers in Houston, TX, she stated on the American Public Media radio program "Marketplace (Audio clip)::

"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're gonna move to Houston.' What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas... Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality, and so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them."

Critics have called these comments elitist, aristocratic [4] and even racist (the 15,000 evacuees in the Astrodome were mostly poor and black) [5] [6]. At least one critic has used these statements to deride Barbara Bush as "The American Queen Mother." while supporters countered that she was expressing the gratitude she had heard from the evacuees for the help and welcome they had received in Houston. [7] [8]

• In 2006 it was revealed that Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil Bush. [9]

• Television and film sensation Borat mentioned Barbara Bush multiple time during the publicity campaign for the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Barbara Bush is described by Borat as the father of George W. Bush, and as a "big" and "tough" man.

External links

• White House biography

• Paper defining the role of the first lady, including a comparison between Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton