Former US First Lady Barbara Bush dies
FIRST LADY BECAME POPULAR FOR HER WORK ON LITERACY AND SELF-DEPRECATING HUMOUR
Barbara Pierce Bush, who helped propel her husband and their son to the presidency and became by virtue of her wit, selfdeprecation and work on literacy one of the most popular first ladies in US history, died on Tuesday, according to a family spokesman.
Bush, who suffered from heart and respiratory problems, was 92.
On Sunday, the office of her husband of 73 years, President George H.W. Bush, said that following a series of hospitalisations, she had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care.”
“It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself — thanks to her abiding faith — but for others,” the statement said. “She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and, especially, the prayers she is receiving.”
The announcement led to an outpouring of praise from the public and highranking officials from across the political spectrum.
Bush is the second woman in US history to have been the wife of one president and the mother of another, George W. Bush. She also campaigned on behalf of another son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, during his unsuccessful quest for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The only other woman to have been the wife and mother of presidents was Abigail Adams, whose husband, John, was the second president, and her son John Quincy Adams was the sixth.
While she was unpretentious, plainspoken and down-to-earth, Bush was also a Northeastern blue blood who was strong-willed, politically shrewd, always blunt and occasionally caustic.
She often downplayed her own considerable skills by saying: “All I ever did was marry and birth well.”
As first lady from 1989 to 1993, she sometimes had a popularity rating that was higher than her husband’s. His presidency may have been imperfect — judged successful in foreign affairs and disappointing on the domestic economic front — but the first lady wielded a behind-the-scenes influence and the skills of an effective campaigner.
Part of her strength was her willingness to poke fun, particularly at herself. Her signature fashion statement was a three-strand choker of unmistakably fake pearls. Her prematurely white hair earned her a teasing family nickname, “the Silver Fox,” even as it inspired unkind gibes about looking like her husband’s mother.
During her first year in the White House, she was criticised by Liz Carpenter, former press secretary of another first lady, Lady Bird Johnson, for refusing to speak out on issues that were important to women. In her 1994 memoir, Bush published a response that she wrote but never mailed: “Long ago I decided in life I had to have priorities. I put my children and husband at the top of my list. That’s a choice that I never regretted.” Abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment and gun control were not priorities for her, she wrote.
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….”
Statement from former President George W. Bush