contemplative
Barbara Pierce was born on June 8, 1925 in New York City. Her father, Marvin Pierce, was President of the McCall Publishing Corporation and her mother Pauline Robinson Pierce, served as the conservation chairperson of the Garden Club of America. After Pauline Pierce's death in 1949 in car accident, Marvin Pierce married a second time in June 1952, to artist and Associated Press reporter Willa Martin. Barbara Pierce Bush was also a fourth cousin four times removed of President Franklin Pierce. They shared an early New England ancestor named Thomas Pierce. (One genealogical chart claims that some thirty generations earlier Lady Godiva was her ancestor.) She was the third of four children. She has one sister and two brothers: Martha Pierce Rafferty (born 1920), James Pierce (1921-1993), and Scott Pierce (born 1930).
Barbara Bush attended Ashley Hall boarding high school in Charleston, South Carolina and later went to Smith College, but dropped out after freshman year. She was very athletic, enjoying swimming, tennis and bike riding. At a 1941 Christmas dance, when she was only 16 years old, she met George Herbert Walker Bush, her future husband, who was then a senior at the boarding school Phillips Academy in Andover. There was an immediate mutual attraction and they began writing to each other. She went as his date to his senior prom. He completed pilot training by 1943, becoming the youngest pilot then in the navy. The same year Barbara Bush graduated from Ashley Hall and entered Smith College. Bush named his bomber plane "Barbara" after her.
During the war Barbara Bush work during the summers, first at a Lord & Taylor, a department store in Greenwich, Connecticut, then at a nuts and bolts factory that provided supplies for the U.S. war effort. She made a cross-country train trip with the German nurse of her baby niece because the woman feared being accused of being a Nazi spy. When she began Smith College, Barbara Bush wrote that it opened her perceptions about the world: it was the first racially integrated school she attended. She also made the freshman soccer team and served as captain.
Barbara Pierce and George Bush became engaged, just before he went off to war during World War II as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot. He was nearly killed after being shot down on September 2, 1944. When he returned on leave, Barbara dropped out of college. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they married. He was 20 and she was 19. They were married at First Presbyterian Church, in Rye, New York. They spent their honeymoon in New York City where they saw Meet Me in St. Louis at Radio city Music Hall and then went to Sea Island, Georgia. For the first eight months of their marriage, Barbara Bush moved from Michigan to Maine to Virginia as her husband's new squadron training and formation required his presence at different naval bases in those states.
The couple had six children together, four sons, two daughters: George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946), Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (December 20, 1949 - October 11, 1953), John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953), Neil Mallon Bush (born January 22, 1955), Marvin Pierce Bush (born December 22, 1956), and Dorothy "Doro" Bush Koch (born August 18, 1959).
As a newlywed, Barbara Bush moved with her husband as he continued to train as a navy pilot. World War II ended while George Bush was training with his new squadron and when he was accepted as a student at Yale, Barbara Bush moved with him to New Haven, Connecticut where she worked at the college campus store until giving birth to George W. Bush, her first child, in July of 1946. Upon her husband's graduation, he decided to relocate to Odessa, Texas and enter the oil business. They then moved to Los Angeles, where he became a drilling-bit salesman and moved to numerous locations in the southern California area, including Whittier, a town then represented in Congress by Richard Nixon. The Bushes would move some twenty-nine times during their marriage. They returned to Texas, settling in Midland in 1950 and shortly thereafter Bush co-founded his own oil development company that merged three years later with another company to form Zapata Oil.
The death of their two-year old daughter Robin from leukemia in October 1953 was a tragedy for the family. It would lead her to support numerous leukemia and cancer research and treatment programs. Her son Neil's diagnosis as dyslexic, began her lifelong interest in reading and literacy issues.
Barbara Bush had to drive her children across the country and up to her husband's family summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. She was accompanied by two African-American women, Julia May Cooper and Otha Fitzgerald and witnessed for herself the reality of racial bigotry as the two women were not permitted to stay in hotels or motels or eat in restaurants in the South along with Barbara Bush and her children. Barbara Bush refused to dine or sleep where the other women were not permitted. She and her husband became members and supporters of the United Negro College Fund.
In 1964, Barbara Bush participated in the first of a lifetime of political campaigns, an effort to elect her husband U.S. Senator from Texas. He lost that election, but was elected to Congress in 1966, and again two years later. He lost a second bid for the Senate in 1970, but President Richard Nixon named him Ambassador to United Nations. She had advised her husband against accepting Nixon's offer to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee as the Watergate scandal was unfolding, but he took the position nonetheless. In appreciation of Bush's party loyalty in having taken the chairmanship, Nixon's successor Gerald Ford named Bush as head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing, China in 1974. The couple lived in Beijing, often bicycling to explore the city. His next assignment was as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, a post he held until 1977. The secrecy of the work led to a sense of isolation for her and a brief period when she suffered from depression. She later said that she regretted not seeking professional help
When George H. W. Bush ran in the presidential primaries for the Republican nomination in 1980, Barbara Bush declared her support for the Equal Rights Amendment as well as her support for Roe v. Wade. This put them at odds with the conservative wing of the party led by former California governor Ronald Reagan that was then eclipsing the moderate wing with which the Bushes belonged to.
During her eight years as the wife of the Vice President (20 January, 1981 - 20, January, 1989), Barbara Bush took an active role in several literacy organizations and traveled the world extensively with her husband on his official trips. During the 1984 campaign she made sharp offhand remarks about the 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, which were widely reported in the media and she publicly apologized and also telephoned Ferraro.
At the 1988 Republican National Convention, Barbara Bush became the first candidate's spouse to address the convention that nominated her husband, focusing on the candidate as a family man. The Bush campaign made generous use of the large Bush clan, including television commercials that showed George and Barbara Bush with some of their twelve grandchildren. Her image was in contrast to that of Nancy Reagan in that Barbara Bush emphasized her domestic interests in gardening, family life and church. She often drew attention to her white hair, matronly figure and disinterest in wearing designer clothing. She vigorously denied a printed but unproven rumor that her husband had once had a relationship with a female member of his staff.
Following his 1989 swearing-in ceremony, George and Barbara Bush followed the Inauguration Day tradition begun by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter of walking part of the parade route back to the White House. As First Lady she sought to bring national attention to, and help address the problem of illiteracy in America. She founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, a private organization that solicited grants from public and private institutions to support literacy programs. She appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show addressing the issue, and had a radio program called Mrs. Bush's Story Time, that stressed the importance of reading aloud to children. She argued that a person's inability to read or fully comprehend what they might be able to partially read could have a devastating impact on all elements of their lives: education, employment, housing, safety, health, parenthood, crime, travel. She said that she did not believe there should be a law that established English as the official language of the United States because she felt it had "racial overtones."
Barbara Bush also sought to bring national attention to the problems of indigent and homeless families. She visited "Martha's Table" an inner-city center providing meals for poor families and daytime and after-school activities for homeless children, and also running a mobile soup-and-sandwich kitchen through the streets of Washington. She visited homeless family shelters, and expressed concern for abandoned, single, unmarried mothers, many of them teenagers, who were receiving no help from the fathers of the children. She made the front page of many global newspapers when, during a visit to "Grandma's House," a pediatric AIDS care center, she held a baby infected with the virus and in an act that was often misunderstood as making one susceptible to contracting the disease. She also hugged an adult with AIDS as well. She took the President to the National Institute of Health to meet with male patients who had AIDS, and attended the funeral of teenager Ryan White who succumbed to AIDS after leading a long public education campaign on the issue. When there was an AIDS memorial vigil where gatherers held candles, she placed candles in all the White House windows and asked several family members AIDS victims to bring to her in the White House parts of a national AIDS quilt that was then on display on the national mall. Time magazine credited Barbara Bush's concern for those with AIDS for influencing the President to propose increased research and treatment funding. She was further credited as being the inside advocate for the President's signing of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act and invited the first openly gay and lesbian citizens to the presidential signing ceremony. She wrote to the president of the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, "I firmly believe we cannot tolerate discrimination against any individuals or groups. It always brings with it pain and perpetuates hate and intolerance."
In 1990, Barbara Bush was asked to speak at Wellesley College. Many students didn’t want her to speak because they felt she defined herself solely through the person she married, rather than as an individual with her own life and interests. Barbara Bush accepted the invitation and spoke about the conflicting desire for young women to have both a family and a career. She brought Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of Soviet President, with her. Her speech was a serious but humorous look at diversity, a changing world and a woman’s role in that world. She said that perhaps some one in the audience might one day follow in her footsteps as an aide, supporter and helpmate to a President, "and I wish him well!"
When her Springer Spaniel dog "Millie" gave birth to puppies, it made the cover of Life magazine. In her slippers and housecoat, she walked her dog around the White House lawn. The dog and puppies became closely associated with the First Lady. When she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, she publicly disclosed all details about her coping with the thyroid condition.
At the first game played by the newly-created Texas Rangers baseball team that was partially owned by her son, George W., Barbara Bush became the first First Lady to throw out a ball to open the baseball season. Her son George W. said of her, "Every mother has her own style. Mine was a little like an army drill sergeant's. My mother's always been a very outspoken person who vents very well. She'll just let rip if she's got something on her mind."
Barbara Bush did not deny that she and her husband sometimes disagreed, but she insisted on keeping some details strictly a private matter between the two of them. On occasion, she let her real opinions be known, such as when she called for Panamanian general Manuel Noriega to stand trial for his crimes against his people. When she spoke out strongly in favor of gun control after a violent shootout in the capital, there was a strong reaction from his base supporters in the National Rifle Association. But she was a strong supporter of the Gulf War waged by her husband, and spent a Thanksgiving holiday with him among U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.
Barbara Bush took her husband's loss of the White House in 1992 hard. She immediately involved herself in a new life of public service activity, helping to plan her husband's presidential library. She works with a number of organizations including the Mayo Clinic, the Leukemia Society of America, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Boys & Girls Club of America. Through her foundation for family literacy, she has sought to help establish and fund family literacy programs. She serves as honorary chair of the Foundation and hosts its annual fundraiser, "A Celebration of Reading."
She expressed pride at the election of her son George W. Bush as President of the United States in 2000 and 2004. Barbara Bush also addressed both the 2000 and the 2004 Republican National Conventions that nominated her son and actively campaigned for him. As the only other woman besides Abigail Adams to be both the wife and mother of U.S. Presidents, Barbara Bush became one of her son's staunch defenders.
Several schools have been named for her: Barbara Bush Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, Barbara Bush Middle School in Irving, Texas, Barbara Bush Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District, Barbara Bush Elementary School in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas, Barbara Bush Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona. The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center is also named for her, located in Portland, Maine. Barbara Bush served on the boards of AmeriCares and the Mayo Clinic, and heads her Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She authored four books and the profits from them benefited literacy
In the fall of 2008 and again in the spring of 2009, Mrs. Bush was hospitalized, undergoing surgery for an intestinal tear and aortic valve replacement, respectively. She joined other members of her family in also attending a World Series game in 2010 played by the Texas Rangers against the San Francisco Giants. In a guest editorial in the December of 2009 issue of Newsweek Mrs. Bush praised the film Precious for its depiction of triumph experienced by an illiterate and abused young African-American woman. As she wrote, "After 30 years promoting literacy, I've never felt more energized. Watching this movie, I was reminded why it's important that we keep working so hard."
Mrs. Bush suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure, and Graves' disease. In April 2018, her family released a statement regarding her "failing health", which stated that shehad chosen to be at home with family rather than seek further treatment. She died in her Houston home yesterday at the age of 92. Her son George W. Bush announced on Twitter, "My dear mother has passed on at age 92. Laura, Barbara, Jenna, and I are sad, but our souls are settled because we know hers was. I'm a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. Our family will miss her dearly, and we thank you all for your prayers and good wishes."
Her funeral will be held at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston on April 21, 2018, with burial at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas.