Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush (née Pierce; June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. She was previously the second lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, and founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Among her children are George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, and Jeb Bush, the 43rd governor of Florida. She and Abigail Adams are the only two women to be the wife of one U.S. president and the mother of another. At the time she became first lady, she was the second oldest woman to hold the position, behind only Anna Harrison, who never lived in the capital. Bush was generally popular as first lady, recognized for her apolitical grandmotherly image.
This article is about the first lady of the United States. For her granddaughter, see Barbara Bush (born 1981). For other people named Barbara Bush, see Barbara Bush (disambiguation).
Barbara Bush
George H. W. Bush
June 8, 1925
New York City, U.S.
April 17, 2018 (aged 92)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
- Marvin Pierce (father)
Smith College (dropped out)
Barbara Pierce was born in New York City and grew up in Rye, New York. She met George H. W. Bush at the age of sixteen, and the two married in 1945. They moved to Texas in 1948, where George was successful in the oil industry and later began his political career. Bush had six children between 1946 and 1959, and she had to endure the loss of her four-year-old daughter Robin to leukemia in 1953. She lived in Washington, D.C., New York, and China while accompanying her husband in his various political roles in the 1960s and 1970s. She became an active campaigner for her husband whenever he stood for election. Bush became second lady after her husband became vice president in 1981. She took on the role of a social hostess as second lady, holding frequent events at the vice president's residence, and she traveled to many countries with her husband on his diplomatic missions.
Bush became first lady in 1989 after her husband was inaugurated as president. She enjoyed the role and life in the White House, though her experience as first lady was complicated by her protectiveness over her family and her diagnosis of Graves' disease in 1989. She frequently carried out charity work, including her projects to promote literacy and her support for people with AIDS. Among the most prominent of her actions as first lady was the commencement speech she gave at Wellesley College; it saw considerable publicity and her selection was controversial, but it was widely regarded as a success. She remained active in political campaigning after leaving the White House, as two of her sons ran for office in both gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.
Early life[edit]
Childhood[edit]
Barbara Pierce was born in New York City on June 8, 1925, to Pauline Pierce (née Robinson) and Marvin Pierce.[1] Her father was a businessman who worked at the McCall Corporation; he descended from the Pierce family that included U.S. president Franklin Pierce.[2] She had a close relationship with her father,[1][3] and she considered him a mentor in many aspects of her life.[4] Pierce's mother, the daughter of a Supreme Court of Ohio justice,[5] was a housewife who was involved in the gardening community.[3][4] Barbara was the third of her parents' four children, and she often felt overshadowed as a middle child: her older sister Martha was well liked and modeled for Vogue, her older brother Jimmy was a delinquent, and her younger brother Scott had a bone cyst that led to several surgeries throughout his childhood. Barbara felt especially neglected by her mother, with whom she often argued.[6] Noticing her mother's poor financial habits and general pessimism about her life, Barbara came to see her mother as an example to avoid, instead believing that she had to choose to be happy with what she had.[3][4] She later came to understand the ordeals faced by her mother, particularly after Barbara had a sick child of her own.[7][8]
Pierce grew up in Rye, New York, where she lived in relative comfort with servants assisting the family. She later described herself as a "very happy fat child".[1] While the family lost some of their comforts during the Great Depression, her father's successful career kept them from poverty.[6] In her youth, Pierce was athletic and enjoyed swimming, tennis, and cycling.[9] For the first years of her schooling, Pierce was a public school student, attending Milton School.[4] Insecure about her appearance as a child, she adopted a self-deprecating sense of humor and harshly judged her schoolmates. She also took on more traditionally masculine interests, such as playing football.[10] In her teenage years, she became more popular and was often sought after as a partner in her dance classes.[11] Pierce attended the Rye Country Day School from seventh to tenth grade. She then attended Ashley Hall, a boarding school in Charleston, South Carolina, for eleventh and twelfth grade.[2]
Courtship and marriage[edit]
When Pierce was 16 and on Christmas vacation, she met George H. W. Bush.[12] They met at a Christmas dance at the Greenwich Country Club, when he saw her across the room and asked a friend to introduce them.[13] After a dance together, they instead sat and talked because Bush did not know how to waltz.[14] They were immediately infatuated with one another,[15][16] and they met again, first at a dance the following night, and then when Bush agreed to play a basketball game with her brother—a game that was attended by the entire Pierce family, who all wished to see the object of her affections.[17] They kept a correspondence after Pierce returned to Ashley Hall, and they went on a date during their spring break. He then asked Pierce to accompany him to his senior prom.[18] Bush enlisted in the navy in 1942 after he graduated, and they saw each other on visits until the following year, when they were secretly engaged. Despite their original intention of secrecy, their families soon knew of it.[19] Pierce graduated from Ashley Hall in 1943.[1]
Pierce briefly attended Smith College while Bush was fighting in the Pacific theater of World War II, but she dropped out at the beginning of her second year in anticipation of their wedding.[12] While in college, she focused on the social and athletic aspects rather than her studies, as she already had the promise of a stable life after her wedding.[20][21] To support the war effort, she worked at a nuts-and-bolts factory as a gofer. While Bush was on leave, Pierce accompanied him to his family home. She took quickly to the family, and they gave her the nickname Bar, which was derived from teasingly calling her the name of the family horse, Barsil, rather than from her own name. She retained the nickname for life. In June 1944, she feared him dead after learning that his plane was shot down, but he was soon found and rescued.[13]
Pierce married Bush at the Rye First Presbyterian Church on January 6, 1945, when she was 19 years old.[22] The reception was held at The Apawamis Club, where they had gone on their first date,[23] and they had their honeymoon in Sea Island, Georgia.[1] For the first eight months of their marriage, George and Barbara Bush moved around the Eastern United States, to places including Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia, where George Bush's Navy squadron training required his presence.[9] After George was discharged, they moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and they lived in shared housing while George was attending Yale University.[1] Barbara decided not to return to college, instead working a part-time job on the Yale campus before focusing on having and raising children. Their first child, George, was born on July 6, 1946.[22]
Early married years[edit]
The Bushes moved to Texas in 1948 when George graduated from Yale,[24] as he had accepted a job in the oil industry from a family friend.[25] He did not consult Barbara before deciding on the move, and she did not raise any protest. The Bushes first lived in Odessa, Texas, where Barbara sought to set up a life in which she was not subjected to her mother's criticisms or compared to her siblings.[26] She credited this sudden lifestyle shift for prompting her to become more mature, as the distance from their families forced Barbara and George to become self-sufficient.[27][28]
The following year, the Bushes moved to California, where they lived in several different towns over the course of a year for George's work.[29] While in California, Bush learned that her mother had died in a traffic collision. To her later regret, she decided not to attend the funeral or visit her injured father in the hospital, fearing the toll that cross-country travel would take on her pregnancy. Two months later, she gave birth to her second child, Robin.[30] The Bushes then returned to Texas so George could start his own oil business, and they established a home in Midland, Texas.[24] Bush was often left alone with the children while George was away for work, sometimes for days at a time.[31] She had her third child, Jeb, in 1953.[32] While living in Texas, Bush decided to convert from Presbyterianism to her husband's denomination of Episcopalianism. However, upon taking the necessary classes, the rector congratulated her for achieving "first-class" by becoming an Episcopalian. She was so insulted by the suggestion that members of one denomination are superior to another that she left without joining, and she thereafter attended the church without anyone noticing that she was not a member.[33]
The family life established by the Bushes was interrupted in 1953 when Robin was diagnosed with leukemia. Against the advice of their physician, they took her to New York to get treatment.[32][34] Barbara forced herself to maintain her composure throughout the ordeal, and she made a point to never cry in front of her daughter. George was unable to do so and required her support. Robin died six months later, and George then had to provide support to Barbara.[35] She fell into a deep depression, in which she struggled to raise her two surviving children.[32][34] One legend held that her hair began to whiten in her grief, though she later denied this.[36] Her relationship with her husband and her oldest son helped her recover, as Bush felt she had to maintain herself for her family. She began to process her grief after overhearing George W. decline to play with the neighbors because his mother needed him.[35][37] Bush decided that she would continue having children until giving birth to another daughter.[38] She had three more children over the following years: Neil in 1955, Marvin in 1956, and Dorothy in 1959.[24]
The Bushes drove across the country in 1957, and they found themselves interrupted or barred entry wherever they went, as they were accompanied by their Black housekeeper and their Black babysitter.[39] These incidents instilled in Bush an interest in the civil rights movement.[40] The family moved to Houston in 1959, where Barbara, still pregnant with Dorothy, oversaw the construction of their new home.[34] When her son Neil was diagnosed with dyslexia in the second grade, she developed a life-long interest in literacy.[40][41]
Post–White House years[edit]
Retirement[edit]
Bush described January 20, 1993, the day of Bill Clinton's inauguration, as a "tough day" for her and her husband.[112] The Bushes felt that George had earned a second term as president, and Barbara blamed the press—which she accused of being pro-Clinton—for his loss.[113] She believed that they showed preference for Clinton due to his relative youth.[114] The Bushes moved back to Houston, where they lived in a rental home for nine months as they had a new house constructed.[115] This new house featured a six-foot-tall brick wall to ensure the family's privacy.[116]
The day after returning to Houston, the Bushes learned that Nancy Reagan had called into ABC News to criticize them, saying that Barbara had lied about not receiving a tour of the White House in 1988 and falsely stating that the Bushes never invited the Reagans to a state dinner. When Nancy later called Barbara to discuss the impromptu interview, Barbara decided that she "didn't feel like playing her game any more". Barbara corrected the falsehoods, and to make Nancy feel guilty, she lied by saying that reporters were harassing her because of the interview. She hung up after saying "don't you ever call me again". The two never spoke again, excepting brief formalities at state events.[117]
After spending eight years as second lady and then another four as first lady, Bush had gone some time without cooking or driving a car, two skills that she was forced to reacquire after leaving the White House.[108] Though she was able to find more opportunities for relaxation, she remained busy with her various charitable causes, public appearances, and family commitments.[112] For the first weeks of retirement, the Bushes—while still wealthy—did not have access to the funds that they once did and were surprised by the cost of living that they suddenly faced.[117] Later on, between speaking fees and a book deal, Barbara made a considerable amount of money.[108] Her book, Barbara Bush: A Memoir, was published in 1994 and stayed at the top of The New York Times Best Seller list for several weeks.[117][118] That year, two of Bush's sons sought political office: George W. ran to be the governor of Texas, and Jeb ran to be the governor of Florida. Though she helped the two of them campaign, she found that political attacks against her sons caused her even more stress than those against her husband, and she was unable to watch their respective gubernatorial debates. Jeb lost his election, and George W. was elected governor of Texas.[119] Both sons ran for the same offices again in 1998, and both won.[120]
George W. went to Barbara for advice when he was considering a presidential campaign in the 2000 presidential election. Rather than giving him an answer, she told him to make up his mind. Later, during a church sermon about accepting the call to do the right thing, she turned to her son and said "he is talking to you", and he was convinced in that moment to run for president.[121] When George W. announced his candidacy, his parents did not take a prominent role in the campaign, so as to avoid overshadowing him or making the election about the Bush political dynasty. Barbara's primary role was traveling with other women associated with the campaign in the "W Stands for Women" tour in an attempt to increase his share of the women's vote.[122] After a long legal battle over the results, her son's opponent Al Gore conceded the election,[123] and Barbara became the second woman after Abigail Adams to be both the wife and the mother of a U.S. president.[124]