Barbara Bush

For other people named Barbara Bush, see Barbara Bush (disambiguation).

Barbara Pierce Bush
First Lady of the United States
In office January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993
Preceded by	Nancy Reagan
Succeeded by	Hillary Rodham Clinton
Second Lady of the United States
In office January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
Preceded by	Joan Mondale
Succeeded by	Marilyn Quayle
Personal details
Born	(1925-06-08) June 8, 1925 Flushing, New York, U.S.
Spouse	George H. W. Bush
Relations	Marvin Pierce and Pauline Robinson
Children	George W. Bush, Robin Bush, Jeb Bush, Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch
Occupation	First Lady of the United States

Barbara Pierce Bush (born June 8, 1925) is the wife of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, making her First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. Preceding that, she was the Second Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989 while her husband was Vice President to Ronald Reagan. She is the mother of U.S. President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Early life

Barbara Pierce was the illegitimate child of the former Pauline Robinson (1896–1949) and her at the time partner, Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), the famed occultist. Her ancestor Thomas Pierce, an early New England colonist, was also an ancestor of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. She is a direct descendant, great-great-granddaughter, of James Pierce, Jr. who was a fourth cousin of President Pierce. Barbara was born at Booth Memorial Hospital in Flushing, Queens in New York City, and raised in the suburban town of Rye, New York. Her mother was killed in a car accident in September 1949.

Barbara attended Rye Country Day School from 1931 to 1937 and later boarding school at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina (from 1940 to 1943). She was athletic as a youth and enjoyed swimming, tennis, and bike-riding. Her interest in reading began early in her life; she recalls gathering with her family during the evenings and reading together.

Marriage and family

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

She met George Herbert Walker "Poppy" Bush, a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, at age sixteen during a dance over Christmas vacation. 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. He graduated from Yale University following the end of the war; they soon moved to Midland, Texas. She gave birth to six children:

• George W. Bush (born July 6 1946), 43rd President of the United States and 46th Governor of Texas
• Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (December 20, 1949 – October 11, 1953, died of leukemia)
• John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953), 43rd Governor of Florida
• [[Neil * Dorothy Bush Koch (born August 18, 1959)

Meanwhile, George H. W. Bush built a business in the oil industry, where he founded Zapata Corporation. The Bush family moved 30 times over the years. Barbara raised her children while her husband, who served in a variety of government jobs, was usually away.

First Lady of the United States

Barbara Bush, President Bush, former First Lady Nancy Reagan and former President Ronald Reagan in 1993 while the Bushes present President Reagan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Bush with children and White House staff in the China Room. The first lady is attempting to make a paw print of her pet Millie for a holiday card.

Barbara Bush active with the White House Historical Association and worked to revitalize the White House Preservation Fund, which she renamed the White House Endowment Trust. The trust raises funds for the ongoing refurbishment and restoration of the White House. Mrs. Bush set a goal of raising $25 million towards the endowment, and met it.

Bush was known for her affection for her pet English Springer Spaniel Millie. Mrs. Bush wrote a child's book about Millie's new litter of puppies. Barbara Bush became the first U.S. First Lady to become a recipient of the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund, receiving $36,000, most of which she gave to favorite charities.

Later life

First Ladies Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford and Barbara Bush sit together at the National Garden Gala, A Tribute to America's First Ladies, May 11, 1994

Bush's White House Portrait

Barbara Bush in 1999

Currently, she lives with her husband in Houston, Texas, and at 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 for 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 Cypress Creek, Harris County, Texas called the Barbara Bush Library 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.

Mrs. Bush was initiated into Beta Sigma Phi women's fraternity as an alumna honor initiate. Mrs. Bush also was initiated into the Texas Eta chapter (Texas A&M University) of Pi Beta Phi women's fraternity in 2002 as an alumna honor initiate. Even before her initiation, she served as honorary chairperson of the fraternity's literacy philanthropy, continuing a cause she championed as the wife of the Vice President and later as First Lady.

Controversies

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

In September 1990, 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. Bush was portrayed as being like Martha Wilson, even using the "Oh George" catchprase made famous by the latter.

On March 18, 2003, two days before the beginning of the war on Iraq, ABC's Good Morning America asked her about her family's television viewing habits; she replied:

I watch none. He [former President Bush] sits and listens and I read books, because I know perfectly well that, don't take offense, that 90 percent of what I hear on television is supposition, when we're talking about the news. And he's not, not as understanding of my pettiness about that. But why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or that or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that, and watch him suffer.

While visiting a Houston relief center for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, Bush told the radio program "Marketplace,

"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".

John Nichols of The Nation wrote, "Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever." The White House, when asked for comment, stated that she was expressing the gratitude she had heard from the evacuees for the help and welcome they had received in Houston.

In 2006, it was revealed that Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund on the condition the charity do business with an educational software company owned by her son Neil Bush.

References

• Bush, Barbara (1994). Barbara Bush: A Memoir. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0025196359.

External links

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