Barbara Bush, matriarch of a US political dynasty, dies aged 92

Barbara Bush, the former US first lady whose plainspoken manner and utter lack of pretence made her more popular at times than her husband, president George Bush snr, has died, it was announced yesterday. She was 92.

Mrs Bush brought a grandmotherly style to buttoneddown Washington DC, 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 vicepresident, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan.

The Bushes, who were married 6 January, 1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. Mrs Bush was also 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 – though unlike Mrs Bush, Mrs Adams never got to see her son elected.

“I had the best job in America,” Mrs Bush wrote in a 1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. “Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun.”

Last Sunday, family spokesman Jim Mcgrath said the former first lady had decided to decline further medical treatment for health problems and focus instead on “comfort

0 Barbara Bush created a foundation for literacy, and spoke out about civil rights issues, while she was first lady care” at home in Houston, Texas. She had been in hospital recently for congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In 2009, she had heart valve replacement surgery and had a long history of treatment for Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition.

Former president George Bush jnr said in a statement yesterday: “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.

“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.”

Mr Bush snr held his wife’s hand all day on Tuesday and was at her side when she died, according to Jean Becker, chief of staff at the ex-president’s office in Houston.

The funeral is due to take place on Saturday.

Mr Bush snr’s former secretary of state and White House chief of staff, James Baker III, said: “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.”

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. She insisted she did not try to influence her husband’s politics. “I don’t fool around with his office,” she said in one interview, “and he doesn’t fool around with my household.”

While in the White House, she spoke out on civil rights issues, created the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, and appeared on a radio show which championed the benefits of parents reading to their children.