Dorothy Wear Walker Bush

Also Known As: "Dottie"
Birthdate: July 01, 1901
Birthplace: Walkers Point, Kennebunkport, York County, Maine, United States
Death: November 19, 1992 (91), Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States (Stroke)
Place of Burial: Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States

Dorothy Wear Walker Bush (July 1, 1901 – November 19, 1992) was the mother of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, and the grandmother of the 43rd president, George W. Bush. Time on her death wrote that "George (H.W.) Bush was shaped and tempered by his mother's nature." Dorothy Bush raised her five children in a strongly religious home. During her childhood she attended church as many as three times each Sunday.

Biography

She was born Dorothy Walker near Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Me., on July 1, 1901, the daughter of Lucretia "Loulie" Wear Walker and George Herbert Walker. The Walker family had emigrated from England to America in the 17th century, and settled in Maine. By the middle of the 19th century, they had migrated to St. Louis where Dorothy Walker's father became a thriving businessman.

Her father was a banker who established the Walker Cup, which pits British and American amateur golfers. Her father and grandfather established a summer home for the family about 1905 on Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, in a rambling waterfront house that now serves as the vacation White House.

Mrs. Bush grew up in an atmosphere of privilege in St. Louis. She also attended the Farmington School Academy, a prep school in Farmington, Conn. Described in her youth as beautiful and vivacious, with an infectious laugh, she was an avid tennis player, an excellent golfer and a strong swimmer.

On August 6, 1921, Dorothy Walker married Prescott Bush, an investment banker, at the Church of St. Ann in Kennebunkport, not far from her family's summer house. The couple moved to Tennessee and then Massachusetts where George Bush, the future President, was born in 1924. She named her second son after her father, and when young George married Barbara Pierce in 1945, the bride wore her mother-in-law's wedding veil of princess and rosepoint lace. They had a total of five children: Prescott "Pressy" Bush, Jr. (1922), George H. W. Bush (1924; (named after Dorothy's father, George Herbert Walker), Nancy Bush (1926), Jonathan Bush (1931), and William "Bucky" Bush (1938).

In a moment that would grow with legend and capture her essence, Dottie Walker, though abundantly pregnant with her first born, didn’t hesitate to take part in a family game of softball. She was standing in the batter’s box at home plate when labor began, hit a home run, and ran all the bases before declaring, “Take me to the hospital.” Prescott Bush Jr., was born a few hours later.

During the President's childhood, Mrs. Bush was active in Greenwich public affairs, doing work for the Red Cross and a local welfare agency. Her husband, a partner in the Wall Street firm of Brown Brothers, Harriman & Company, also served as Republican Senator from Connecticut from 1952 to 1963. He died in 1972.

Lucretia Wear was descended from French Huguenots (Gabriel and Marie Hersent Maupin) who arrived in America in 1700.

Dorothy Walker died at age 91 in Greenwich, Connecticut, on November 19, 1992. She is interred with her husband Prescott Bush at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut.