Barbara Pierce Bush

Birthdate: June 08, 1925
Birthplace: Booth Memorial Hospital, Flushing , Queens County, New York, United States
Death: April 17, 2018 (92), Houston, Harris County, Texas, United States
Place of Burial: College Station, Brazos County, Texas, United States

Barbara Pierce Bush was the First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993 as the wife of George H. W. Bush, who served as the 41st President of the United States, and founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously was Second Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Among her six children are George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, and Jeb Bush, the 43rd Governor of Florida.

Barbara Pierce was born in New York City. She met George Herbert Walker Bush at the age of sixteen, and the two married in Rye, New York in 1945, while he was on leave during his deployment as a Naval officer in World War II. They moved to Texas in 1948, where George later began his political career.

Early life

Barbara Pierce was born at New York–Presbyterian Hospital Queens on East 15th Street in Manhattan, New York, on June 8, 1925, to Pauline (née Robinson) and Marvin Pierce. She was raised in the suburban town of Rye, New York. Her father later became president of McCall Corporation, the publisher of the popular women's magazines Redbook and McCall's. She had two elder siblings, Martha (1920–1999) and James (1921–1993), and a younger brother, Scott (b. 1930) . Her ancestor, Thomas Pierce Jr., an early New England colonist, was also an ancestor of Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States. She was a fourth cousin, four times removed, of Franklin Pierce and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Pierce and her three siblings were raised in a house on Onondaga Street in Rye. She attended Milton Public School from 1931 to 1937, Rye Country Day School until 1940 and later the boarding school Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, from 1940 to 1943. In her youth, Pierce was athletic and enjoyed swimming, tennis, and bike riding. Her interest in reading began early in life; she recalled gathering and reading with her family during the evenings.

Marriage and family

When Pierce was 16 and on Christmas vacation, she met George H. W. Bush at a dance at the Round Hill Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut; he was a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. After 18 months, the two became engaged to be married, 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 discontinued her studies at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts; two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York, with the reception being held at The Apawamis Club.

For the first eight months of their marriage, the Bushes moved around the Eastern United States, to places including Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia, where George Bush's Navy squadron training required his presence.

Over the next 13 years, George and Barbara Bush had six children who, among them, gave the couple a total of 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren:

• George Walker Bush (b. 1946), who married Laura Welch on November 5, 1977. They have twin daughters, and two granddaughters.
• Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (1949–1953), who died of leukemia at the age of three.
• John Ellis "Jeb" Bush Sr. (b. 1953), who married Columba Garnica Gallo on February 23, 1974. They have three children, and four grandchildren.
• Neil Mallon Bush (b. 1955), who married Sharon Smith in 1980; they divorced in April 2003. They have three children, and one grandson. Neil married Maria Andrews in 2004.
• Marvin Pierce Bush (b. 1956), who married Margaret Molster in 1981. They have two children.
• Dorothy Walker "Doro" Bush Koch (b. 1959), who married William LeBlond in 1982; they divorced in 1990, and have two children. Dorothy married Robert P. Koch in June 1992; they have two children.

Texas years

After the war ended, George and Barbara had their first child while George was a student at Yale University. The young family soon moved to Odessa, Texas, where George entered the oil business. In September 1949, Barbara's parents were in a car accident in New York and her mother was killed. Mrs. Bush was pregnant at the time with her second child, and was advised not to travel to attend the funeral. When the baby was born, she was named Pauline Robinson Bush in honor of Barbara's mother. The Bushes moved to the Los Angeles area for a time, and then to Midland, Texas in 1950. The Bushes would move some 29 times during their marriage. Over time, Bush built a business in the oil industry and joined with colleagues to start up the successful Zapata Corporation. Barbara raised her children while her husband was usually away on business. In 1953, the Bushes' daughter, Robin, died of leukemia.

When their daughter Dorothy was born in August 1959, the Bushes moved from Midland to Houston. In 1963, George Bush was elected Harris County Republican Party chairman, in the first of what would become many elections. In 1964, he made his first run for a prominent political office—U.S. Senator from Texas. Although he lost the election, the exposure that the Bush family received put George and Barbara on the national scene.

Political life

In 1966, George Bush was elected as a U.S. Representative in Congress from Texas. Barbara raised her children while her husband campaigned and occasionally joined him on the trail. Over the ensuing years, George Bush was elected or appointed to several different positions in the U.S. Congress or the executive branch, or government-related posts, and Barbara Bush accompanied him in each case.

As the wife of a Congressman, Barbara immersed herself in projects that piqued her interest; the projects included various charities and Republican women's groups in Washington, D.C. Though her husband lost a second bid for the Senate in 1970, President Richard Nixon appointed him the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, which enabled Barbara to begin forming relationships in New York City with prominent diplomats. As the Watergate scandal heated up in 1973, Nixon asked Bush to become Chairman of the Republican National Committee; Barbara advised her husband to reject the offer because of the harsh political climate, but he accepted anyway.

Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, appointed Bush head of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China in 1974, and the Bushes relocated. She enjoyed the time that she spent in China and often rode bicycles with her husband to explore cities and regions that few Americans had visited. Three years later, Bush was recalled to the U.S. to serve as Director of Central Intelligence during a crucial time of legal uncertainty for the agency. He was not allowed to share classified aspects of his job with Barbara; the ensuing sense of isolation, coupled with her perception that she was not achieving her goals while other women of her time were, plunged her into a depression. She did not seek professional help. Instead, she began delivering speeches and presentations about her time spent in the closed-off China, and volunteered at a hospice.

Barbara Bush defended her husband's experience and personal qualities when he announced his candidacy for President of the United States in 1980. She caused a stir when she said that she supported ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and was pro-choice on abortion, placing her at odds with the conservative wing of the Republican party, led by California Governor Ronald Reagan. Reagan earned the presidential nomination over her husband, who then accepted Reagan's invitation to be his running mate; the team was elected in 1980.

Illnesses and death

Bush was diagnosed with Graves' disease in 1988. Later on, she suffered from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Bush was a heavy smoker for 25 years, quitting in 1968 when a nurse condemned her smoking in her hospital room after surgery.

In November 2008, Bush was hospitalized for abdominal pains and underwent small intestine surgery. She underwent aortic valve replacement surgery in March 2009.

Bush was hospitalized with pneumonia on New Year's Eve 2013 and was released from the hospital a few days later.

On April 15, 2018, her family released a statement regarding her failing health stating that she had chosen to be at home with family, desiring "comfort care" rather than further medical treatment. According to family spokesman Jim McGrath, her decision came as a result of "a series of recent hospitalizations".

Bush died in her Houston home at the age of 92 on April 17, 2018. Her son George W. Bush tweeted, "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."[68] President Donald Trump ordered flags to half-staff in Barbara Bush's memory, as he and First Lady Melania Trump sent condolences on the nation's behalf; saying: "As a wife, mother, grandmother, military spouse, and former First Lady, Mrs. Bush was an advocate of the American family...She will be long remembered for her strong devotion to country and family..." Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama also sent condolences. Some foreign leaders including Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Russian President Vladimir Putin sent their condolences as well.

Her funeral was 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. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and fellow First Ladies Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton were notable representatives who attended the service. Former British Prime Minister John Major and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney were also in attendance.

Following her death, a cartoon by Marshall Ramsey, of The Clarion-Ledger, was widely circulated, showing Barbara being greeted by her daughter Robin (who died of leukemia at age 3) upon her entry to heaven. The cartoon was shared by various people and relatives of the family, including George W.'s daughter, Jenna Bush Hager. She would be featured again in another Ramsey cartoon later on in December of that same year (following her husband George's death seven months later), where both she and Robin greeted George after he landed a TBM Avenger (the type of airplane he flew in the Navy during World War II) in heaven.