Former first lady Barbara Bush dies at 92
Barbara Pierce Bush, who helped propel her husband and their son to the presidency and became by virtue of her wit, self-deprecation and work on literacy one of the most popular first ladies in U.S. history, has died, 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 hospitalizations, 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 high-ranking officials from across the political spectrum.
Bush is the second woman in U.S. history to have been the wife of one president and the mother of another. But Barbara Bush, unlike Abigail Adams, the wife of second U.S. President John Adams and mother of sixth U.S. President John Quincy Adams, lived to see her son George W. Bush inhabit the White House for two terms. She also campaigned on behalf of another son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, during his unsuccessful quest for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
While she was unpretentious, plainspoken and downto-earth, Bush was also a Northeastern blueblood 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 behindthe-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. (He was born one year before her.)
Frequent photographs of her reading to AIDS babies or underprivileged schoolchildren served to soften a toughness that she acknowledged had come to her late in life, after giving birth to six children, five of whom survive her.
To her children and the White House staff, she was “the enforcer” who spoke volumes with a simple raised eyebrow.
During her first year in the White House, she was criticized 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. “I leave that for those courageous enough to run for public office.”