Jonathan Bush dies at age 89
Was George H.W. Bush’s brother
Debbie Walker Stapleton recalled when she first got to know Jonathan Bush, her cousin. When she was a child, he performed a routine from a show he was in — “Oklahoma!” — at her grandmother’s apartment that was “just unbelievable.”
“His talent was just, was boundless,” said Stapleton, 74. “That same joie de vivre that he had in ‘Oklahoma!’ was evident throughout his life.”
The Associated Press reported that Bush — a brother of President George H.W. Bush, and a son of Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush, who represented Connecticut for over a decade — died this week at 89. Tom Collamore, a senior adviser with the George & Barbara Bush Foundation, said Bush died of “natural causes” on Wednesday, one day prior to his 90th birthday.
Stapleton — who lives in North Palm Beach, Fla., and has previously lived in Greenwich — said he had a “wonderful sense of humor” and was “just a lovely human being.”
“Seeing him go is one of the great sadnesses in my life,” she said, referring to him as a “wonderfully warm, funny, engaging, lovely human being.”
Betsy Heminway — who grew up in Greenwich and was a friend of the Bushes — said it was sad he had died but that he had “a wonderful life.”
Heminway, 84, remembered him dancing many years ago in a show in Maine.
“He was just a fabulous presence,” she said. “And I still remember it to this day … [he] was always a kind, thoughtful, fun person to have around, there was always something going on when Johnny was around.”
Heminway said it’s “sort of the end of an era,” noting Bush’s other siblings have died.
The George & Barbara Bush Foundation released a statement on social media regarding Jonathan Bush’s death.
“Our prayers and love are with the Bush family as we remember a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and brother, a fine gentleman, and a noble soul,” the statement read. “And knowing Jonathan, he also would like for us to observe he was a great song and dance man — without a doubt the best dancer of his siblings, all of whom he now joins in heaven.”
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo only knew Bush briefly having interacted with him during a past Republican statewide campaign, but he knew the family through former longtime resident Prescott Bush, Jonathan Bush’s brother who predeceased him.
“He was a really nice guy,” Camillo said about Jonathan Bush. “They’re a really nice family. It’s unfortunate to lose someone like him. It’s a reminder that as some people say the older you get your most valuable asset is time. You don’t get that much of it and this is a reminder that we have people who contributed a lot in their time pass on and then you have to look to a new generation to carry on. We should all be grateful that he and his brothers gave back like they did. They dedicated a lot their lives to others.”