Bush was one of only two women in American history to be both the wife and the mother of United States presidents
The former US first lady Barbara Bush has died at the age of 92, a family spokesman has said.
Bush had been in failing health in recent days – she reportedly had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure. A family spokesman, Jim McGrath, said in a 15 April statement: “Following a recent series of hospitalizations, and after consulting her family and doctors, Mrs Bush has decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care.”
Bush’s two most prominent sons, the former president George W Bush and the former Florida governor Jeb Bush, paid tribute to their mother in separate statements after the news of her death broke.
“Our souls are settled because we know hers was,” George W Bush said, adding that his mother was “a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions”.
“To us, she was so much more. Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end.”
Jeb Bush, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said: “I’m exceptionally privileged to be the son of George Bush and the exceptionally gracious, gregarious, fun, funny, loving, tough, smart, graceful woman who was the force of nature known as Barbara Bush.”
Donald Trump said he and the first lady, Melania Trump, “joined the nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush”.
“As a wife, mother, grandmother, military spouse, and former First Lady, Mrs. Bush was an advocate of the American family,” the president said in a written statement.
Bush was one of two women in American history to be both the wife and the mother of US presidents. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams.
Barack and Michelle Obama praised Bush as “the rock of a family dedicated to public service”.
In a joint statement, the Obamas said Bush lived her life “as a testament to the fact that public service is an important and noble calling; as an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit”.
Bill and Hillary Clinton called Bush a “remarkable woman”.
“She had grit and grace, brains and beauty. She was fierce and feisty in support of her family and friends, her country and her causes,” the Clintons said in a statement.
“She showed us what an honest, vibrant, full life looks like.”
Born in New York in 1925, Barbara Pierce married George HW Bush on 6 January 1945. They had six children including the former president George W Bush and the former Florida governor Jeb Bush. She is also survived by her sons Neil and Marvin and her daughter Doro Bush Koch. Her daughter Robin died at the age of three in 1953.
As first lady from 1989 to 1993, Bush was an advocate for literacy and started the Barbara Bush Foundation to promote this goal. She drew attention while at the White House for seeking to eschew politics, particularly controversial issues such as abortion. However, she attracted controversy in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when she said: “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them,” while meeting with survivors of the natural disaster in Houston.
Bush took to the campaign trail in 2016 on behalf of her son Jeb. She had previously said in 2013 that although Jeb was “the best qualified”, she thought the country had had “enough Bushes”.
Bush had been taken to hospital along with her husband in 2017. She also was diagnosed with Graves disease, a thyroid disorder, while serving as first lady.
US first lady – the wife of one president and the mother of a second – was a robust campaigner for the Republican cause and fierce defender of her family
Barbara Bush, who has died aged 92, was the wife of one US president and mother of another. Her brisk entry into American public life came when her husband, George HW Bush, after 16 years in the oil business, accumulated a large enough fortune to sell up and embark on a political career. When he became a Republican congressman in 1967, the family moved to Washington and Barbara was introduced to the complicated business of acting as a political hostess in a city where backstabbing and insincerity are the principal social graces. She was soon renowned for giving as good as she got, though usually she confined her waspish comments to Democrats.
As her husband moved through a rapid succession of appointments – American ambassador at the UN and later to China, Republican party chairman, director of the CIA, Ronald Reagan’s vice-president, and eventually, from 1989, president himself – Barbara supervised 29 relocations of their family of five children. She was also a robust participant in her husband’s and other Republican candidates’ political campaigns, travelling thousands of miles to preach the Republican cause. Though she was eventually dubbed “the nation’s grandmother”, her claws often came out in her relations with the media, which she regarded generally as a conspiracy of Democrats.
Barbara Bush frequently commented vigorously about public events involving her offspring. In 1990, when her third son, Neil, was director of a Colorado mortgage firm that collapsed owing $1bn, she rounded on members of Congress who had sought information about the scandal. One of Colorado’s Democrats, Patricia Schroeder, intervened on behalf of constituents who had been seriously affected by the collapse; Bush accused her of “using Neil as a daily kicking bag”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barbara Bush with her eldest son, the 43rd US president, George W Bush, at a presentation about Medicare in Atlanta, Georgia, 2005. Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters
In spite of her apparent ease with this confrontational way of life, she acknowledged in her autobiography, Barbara Bush: A Memoir (1994), that it had induced a severe bout of clinical depression. “Sometimes the pain was so great,” she wrote, “that I felt the urge to drive into a tree or an oncoming car. When that happened, I would pull over to the side of the road until I felt OK.”
Daughter of Pauline (nee Robinson) and Marvin Pierce, Barbara was born in New York into a well-to-do family; her father was a publisher of women’s magazines. She was brought up in the New York commuter suburb of Rye and, at 16, met her future husband at one of the many dances which punctuate middle-class American adolescence. Pearl Harbor had just been attacked by the Japanese, and within months the 18-year-old George Bush began training as a navy pilot (eventually to become the youngest in the service). Shortly after their formal engagement he was shot down over the Pacific but quickly rescued. In January 1945 the couple married and Barbara began to adjust to the peripatetic life of a service wife.
Their wanderings did not last long. With the end of the war, George completed his studies at Yale University. In 1948, through family connections, he was recruited into the Texas oil industry and began a rapid ascent up the corporate ladder. Within two years, having built a wide range of industry contacts and with financial help from his uncle, he was able to start his own highly successful drilling business. By then the couple had three children, two boys and a girl. To their intense distress, their daughter Robin died in 1953 of leukaemia at the age of three. One of Barbara’s subsequent charitable campaigns was to work energetically for an organisation established in Robin’s memory to fund research into the disease.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barbara Bush with her husband, five children and grandchildren in the White House, 1989. Photograph: David Valdez/Time & Life/Getty
Later, when her husband had become vice-president, she decided she must find a major charitable cause to support. Having previously discovered that her own children had dyslexic tendencies she decided to campaign in support of literacy. “I realised that everything I worried about would be better if more people could read, write and comprehend. More would stay in school and get an education, meaning fewer would turn to the streets and get involved with crime or drugs, become pregnant, or lose their homes.”
She sustained this interest for the rest of her life. When she became first lady, she wrote two books, ostensibly from the pen of her pet dogs C Fred, a cocker spaniel, and Millie, a springer spaniel, in support of the campaign. The first did reasonably well and raised $100,000 for two independent literacy charities. The second, published to support her own literacy drive, had an extraordinary success. It shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list on publication and eventually sold more than 400,000 copies. It raised more than $1m for the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy she had founded in 1989 and whose work continues today.
Barbara Bush’s involuntary contribution to US history was to become the second American woman to have been the wife of one president and the mother of another. The first was the formidable Abigail Adams. Though born 180 years apart, the two were united by another curious coincidence – the bitter controversy which surrounded the accession of their eldest sons to the White House.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barbara Bush holding the family dog Millie in 1988; she ghostwrote Millie’s memoirs to raise money in support of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
Adams, wife of the second president, John Adams, did not live to witness the uproar that engulfed John Quincy Adams after the 1824 election. Bush lived through 35 days of political and legal turmoil before five of the supreme court’s nine justices broke all constitutional precedents to declare her son George the winner of the 2000 election. Up to the supreme court’s intervention, the outcome depended on 245 popular votes, which would determine which candidate had secured Florida’s 25 electoral college votes and with them the presidency.
The Bushes’ second son Jeb (a 2016 presidential hopeful) was governor of Florida and thus able to pull most of the state’s vital political strings. A six-month investigation by the New York Times later showed that state and county officials had taken a far harsher view of doubtful ballots supporting Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, than of similarly suspect votes favouring George Bush. Only 20% of Gore’s tally was eventually accepted, compared with 60% of Bush’s. The New York Times inquiry concluded that, without such covert political assistance, Gore would probably have won the presidency by 202 votes. Uncharacteristically Barbara Bush made no public comment: her view of the affair is locked in the voluminous diaries she maintained for most of her life.
She is survived by her husband and their children George, Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy.
• Barbara Pierce Bush, US first lady, born 8 June 1925; died 17 April 2018.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Barbara Bush, matriarch of US political dynasty, dies at 92
Barbara Bush, the former US first lady and literacy campaigner, has died at the age of 92.
She was the matriarchal figure of a political dynasty that included two presidents - her husband George HW Bush and son George W Bush.
Mrs Bush, who was first lady from 1989 to 1993, had been in failing health for some time and had declined further medical treatment.
Tributes to her poured in from across the US political establishment.
Her husband, at 93, is the longest-lived US president. Their son, George, was elected in 2000 and served two terms as the nation's 43rd president.
He said in a statement: "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. Barbara Bush was a fabulous First Lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions."
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mrs Bush pictured with her son in 2005
Mr Bush said his mother had "kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end", adding: "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."
A statement from the office of her husband described her as a "relentless proponent of family literacy".
Mrs Bush was also the mother of Jeb Bush, who served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007 and unsuccessfully ran for the White House in 2016.
As first lady, Mrs Bush went beyond the traditional role of a political spouse, founding the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy to help parents and children from disadvantaged communities to read and write.
'Family rock'
She was a fierce advocate of civil rights and went against many of her husband's Republican party supporters with her more liberal view on abortion rights.
In a statement from the White House, President Donald Trump said Mrs Bush would be long remembered for her devotion to country and family, "both of which she served unfailingly well".
Image copyright Reuters Image caption George HW Bush and Barbara Bush were married for 73 years
Barack and Michelle Obama described her as "the rock of a family dedicated to public service" and as "an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit".
Another former US president, Bill Clinton, said Mrs Bush was "feisty in support of her family and friends, her country and her causes".
He said he and Hillary Clinton would "never forget the courtesy she and President Bush showed us".
Mrs Bush was known for her snow-white hair and was dubbed "The Silver Fox" by her family.
She once dismissed speculation that she had influenced her husband during his time in the White House, saying: "I don't fool around with his office and he doesn't fool around with my household."
Image copyright AFP Image caption As first lady, Barbara Bush met leaders from around the world
Mrs Bush also sparked a debate on gender equality in 1990 with an address to the all-women Wellesley College.
She told graduates: "Who knows, somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the president's spouse and I wish him well."
George HW Bush, who served as the 41st US president, suffers from a form of Parkinson's disease and uses a wheelchair.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Barbara Bush often brought humour to an occasion, such as here in a photoshoot with celebrities
It was recently announced that Mrs Bush had declined further medical treatment after a series of hospital visits, but the statement did not reveal the nature of her ailments.
She said she wanted to spend her last days in "comfort care" with her family.
Mrs Bush was born Barbara Pierce, the daughter of Marvin Pierce, publisher of McCall's magazine. She grew up in Rye, New York.
She met her future husband in 1941 at a Christmas party in Connecticut and the couple celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January this year.
They had six children including a daughter, Robin, who died of leukaemia aged three in 1953.
As well as George and Jeb, the other Bush children are Neil, Marvin and Dorothy.
Mrs Bush was one of only two women whose husband and son became US president, and the only one to have seen them both sworn in.
Abigail Adams was married to the second US president, John Adams, and was the mother of the sixth, John Quincy Adams, although she did not live to see their son elected.
(Reuters) - Former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush, the only woman to see her husband and son both sworn in as president, died on Tuesday, the Bush family said. She was 92.
Bush was the wife of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, and mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush.
The Bush family had said in a statement on Sunday that she was in failing health, had decided not to seek further medical treatment and instead would focus on “comfort care.”
According to some media reports, Bush had been battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart problems in recent years.
“Barbara Bush was a fabulous First Lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love and literacy to millions,” George W. Bush said in a statement. “To us, she was so much more. Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end.”
Dubbed “The Silver Fox” by her husband and children, Bush was known for her snow-white hair and for being fiercely protective of her family.
She was first lady when her husband was in the White House from 1989 to 1993. Her son, Republican George Walker Bush, triumphed in the disputed 2000 U.S. election and was president from 2001 to 2009. The father-and-son presidents were sometimes referred to as “Bush 41” and “Bush 43.”
The Bushes celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January.
Bush had an independent streak and could be sharp-tongued. As first lady, she promoted literacy and reading but said she was more interested in running a household than helping her husband run the country.
She discouraged speculation that she wielded political influence with the president like her predecessors - Ronald Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, and Jimmy Carter’s wife, Rosalynn Carter.
“I don’t fool around with his office and he doesn’t fool around with my household,” she once said.
“She’ll speak her mind but only to him,” said Jack Steel, a longtime Bush aide.
‘HUMILITY AND DECENCY’
President Donald Trump and former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were among those praising the late first lady.
“She will be long remembered for her strong devotion to country and family, both of which she served unfailingly well,” Trump and his wife, Melania, said in a statement that noted Bush’s championing of literacy “as a fundamental family value.”
Clinton, who defeated her husband in the 1992 presidential election, called Bush “fierce and feisty in support of her family and friends, her country and her causes. She showed us what an honest, vibrant, full life looks like.”
Obama and his wife, Michelle, said in a statement that Barbara Bush was “an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit.”
The only other woman to be both wife and mother of U.S. presidents was Abigail Adams, the first lady from 1797 to 1801. She was a major influence on husband John Adams, the nation’s second president, but died before son John Quincy Adams was elected president in 1824.
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush listens to her son, President George W. Bush, as he speaks at an event on social security reform in Orlando, Florida, March 18, 2005. REUTERS/Jason Reed JIR/HB
Another of Bush’s sons, Jeb, who served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and she campaigned for him before he dropped out of the race.
The Bushes had six children. A daughter, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953 at age 3. Barbara Bush’s hair began to turn prematurely white after the shock of the girl’s death. In addition to George W. and Jeb, the other Bush children were sons Neil and Marvin and daughter Dorothy.
The Bushes married on Jan. 6, 1945, and Barbara set up households in numerous cities as her husband moved from being a Texas oilman to being a member of Congress, Republican Party leader, U.S. envoy to China and the United Nations and head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
‘RHYMES WITH RICH’
Barbara Bush sometimes made biting remarks, particularly when she felt the need to defend her husband. One notable example came in 1984 when George H.W. Bush was seeking re-election as vice president under Reagan, a post he held from 1981 until becoming president in 1989.
She told reporters that Geraldine Ferraro, her husband’s Democratic rival for the vice presidency, was a “4 million dollar ... I can’t say it but it rhymes with ‘rich.’” She apologized to Ferraro, the first woman running for U.S. vice president on a major-party ticket.
Texas Governor Ann Richards mocked her husband at the 1988 Democratic convention - saying: “Poor George ... was born with a silver foot in his mouth” - and Barbara henceforth referred to Richards as “that woman.”
In 2012, Bush dismissed the political ambitions of U.S. conservative darling Sarah Palin, saying: “I think she’s very happy in Alaska - and I hope she’ll stay there.”
Bush generally refused to discuss publicly her personal views on controversial topics such as abortion, an issue on which she was believed to differ from her husband’s more conservative stance.
But during her husband’s 1992 re-election race, she told reporters that abortion and homosexuality were “personal things” that should be left out of political conventions and party platforms. “I don’t think that’s healthy for the country when anyone thinks their morals are better than anyone else’s,” she said.
Opinion polls often showed her popularity as first lady exceeding her husband’s as president. “I don’t threaten anyone,” she said. “That’s because I’m everyone’s grandma.”
PUBLISHER’S DAUGHTER
A year younger than her husband, she was born Barbara Pierce on June 8, 1925, and grew up in Rye, New York. Her father was Marvin Pierce, publisher of McCall’s magazine.
She was home from boarding school in 1941 when she met her future husband at a Christmas party in Connecticut. She dropped out of prestigious Smith College to marry Bush, then a young naval aviator home on leave from World War Two.
George Bush said marrying Barbara, whom he called “Bar,” was “the thing I did right.” But the marriage nearly did not take place. While they were engaged, his bomber was shot down by the Japanese in the Pacific in 1944. He bailed out and was rescued in the ocean by a submarine crew, but his crewmates died.
“When you’re 18, you think everybody is invincible. ... I mean, that was stupid - but I knew he was going to come home. He was Superman,” she told CNN in 2003.
Slideshow (9 Images)
After leaving the White House, she found time to write her memoirs. In 1990, she authored “Millie’s Book,” a humorous look at the adventures of the family’s English springer spaniel in the White House.
In one of their last public appearances, the Bushes attended the 2017 Super Bowl in Houston, with George performing the ceremonial pregame coin flip. Only a few days before, the couple had been released from a hospital where George had been treated for pneumonia and Barbara for bronchitis.
