Bush laments loss of ‘dear’ mum at 92
Tributes pour in for ex-first lady Barbara
HOUSTON: Barbara Bush, the snowy-haired first lady and mother of a president whose plainspoken manner and utter lack of pretense made her more popular at times than her husband, former president George H W Bush, died on Tuesday, a family spokesman said. She was 92.
Ms Bush brought a grandmotherly style to buttoned-down Washington, often appearing in her trademark fake pearl chokers and displaying no vanity about her white hair and wrinkles.
“What you see with me is what you get. I’m not running for president — George Bush is,’’ she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where her husband, then vice president, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan.
The Bushes, who were married on Jan 6, 1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. And Ms Bush was one of only two first ladies who had a child who was elected president. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams.
“I had the best job in America,’’ she wrote in a 1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. “Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun.’’
On Sunday, family spokesman Jim McGrath said the former first l ady had decided to decline further medical treatment for health problems and focus instead on “comfort care’’ at home in Houston.
She had been in the hospital recently for congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In 2009, she had heart valve replacement surgery, and she had a long history of treatment for Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition.
“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,’’ former president George W Bush said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Barbara Bush was a fabulous First Lady and 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. 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.’’
George H W Bush held his wife’s hand all day Tuesday and was at her side when she died, according to Jean Becker, chief of staff at George H W Bush’s office in Houston.
A funeral is planned for Saturday at St Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, which Ms Bush and her husband regularly attended.
Ms Bush will lie in repose Friday at the church for members of the public who want to pay respects. Saturday’s service will be by invitation only, according to the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation.
“Barbara Bush challenged each of us to build a better world by empowering people through literacy. As only one of two women in American history who can be called First Lady and First Mother, she was matriarch of a family that remains as dedicated to public service as it was to politics,’’ said former secretary of state and White House chief of staff James Baker III.
The publisher’s daughter and oilman’s wife could be caustic in private, but her public image was that of a self-sacrificing, supportive spouse who referred to her husband as her “hero”.
In the White House, “you need a friend, someone who loves you, who’s going to say, ‘You are great,’” Ms Bush said in a 1992 television interview.