Laughter, tears at former first lady’s funeral
HOUSTON — Barbara Bush was remembered as the “first lady of the Greatest Generation” during a funeral Saturday attended by four former U.S. presidents and hundreds of other people who filled a Houston church with laughter as much as tears, with many recalling her quick wit and devotion to family.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joked that his mother called her style of raising him and his siblings “’a benevolent dictatorship’ — but honestly, it wasn’t always benevolent.” She was widely admired for her plain-spoken style during her husband George H.W. Bush’s presidency and was known as “The Enforcer” in her high-powered family.
Jeb Bush said he could feel her presence Saturday inside the church and she would likely have given him advice: “Jeb, keep it short. Don’t drag this out,” he said to chuckles.
He choked up at one point while addressing the roughly 1,500 people seated inside St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, where his parents regularly worshipped, when saying his mother — known for her self-deprecating remarks about her wrinkles and white-grey hair — was “beautiful” until the very end.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham, who wrote a 2015 biography on the former president, recalled during his eulogy Barbara Bush’s devotion to her husband of 73 years, noting he was the “only boy she ever kissed.” Theirs was the longest marriage of any presidential couple.
Meacham said Bush was known for bringing awareness to AIDS patients and for promoting literacy.
“Barbara Bush was the first lady of the Greatest Generation,” Meacham said, a nod to the generation that fought in the Second World War.
The Bush family was seated in front of the church. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and current first lady Melania Trump were seated nearby. President Trump did not attend.
Barbara Bush was buried later at her husband’s presidential library at Texas A&M University. The burial site is near where the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, who died of leukemia in 1953, is buried.