Everything about Barbara Bush totally explained
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 33rd
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 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. 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). 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'd 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:
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 was 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
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 couldn't 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'd 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 [formerPresident 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".
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.
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Barbara Bush'.
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