‘I HAD THE BEST JOB IN AMERICA’
Former first lady remembered for her quick wit and plain-spoken style,
Barbara Bush, the HOUSTON— snowy-haired first lady whose plain-spoken manner and utter lack of pretence made her more popular at times than her husband, former U.S. president George H.W. Bush, died Tuesday, a family spokesperson said. She was 92.
Bush brought a grandmotherly style to buttoned-down Washington, 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 vice-president, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan.
The Bushes, who were married Jan. 6,1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. And Mrs. Bush was 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.
“I had the best job in America,” she wrote in a1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. “Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun.”
On Sunday, family spokesperson Jim McGrath said the former first lady had decided to decline further medical treatment for health problems and focus instead on “comfort care” at home in Houston. She had been in the 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.
“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,” George W. Bush said in a statement Tuesday. “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. I’m a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. Our family will miss her dearly, and we thank you all for your prayers and good wishes.” Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately released.
The White House said in a statement posted on the president’s Twitter feed that the Trumps “join the nation in celebrating Barbara Bush.”
The statement hailed the former first lady as “an advocate of the American family” and said she “will be long remembered for her strong devotion to country and family, both of which she served unfailingly well.”
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 who referred to her husband as her “hero.”
In the White House, “you need a friend, someone who loves you, who’s going to say, ‘You are great,’ ” Mrs. Bush said in a 1992 television interview.
Her uncoifed, matronly appearance often provoked jokes that she looked more like the boyish president’s mother than his wife. Late-night comedians quipped that her bright white hair and pale features also imparted a resemblance to George Washington.
Eight years after leaving the nation’s capital, Mrs. Bush stood with her husband as their son George W. was sworn in as president. They returned four years later when he won a second term. Unlike Mrs. Bush, Abigail Adams did not live to see her son’s inauguration. She died in 1818, six years before John Quincy Adams was elected.
Mrs. Bush insisted she did not try to influence her husband’s politics.
“I don’t fool around with his office,” she said, “and he doesn’t fool around with my household.”
In 1984, her quick wit got her into trouble when she was quoted as referring to Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, as “that $4 million — I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich.” “It was dumb of me. I shouldn’t have said it,” Bush acknowledged in 1988. “It was not attractive, and I’ve been very shamed. I apologized to Mrs. Ferraro, and I would apologize again.”
Daughter-in-law Laura Bush, wife of the 43rd president, said Mrs. Bush was “ferociously tart-tongued.”
“She’s never shied away from saying what she thinks ... She’s managed to insult nearly all of my friends with one or another perfectly timed acerbic comment,” Laura Bush wrote in her 2010 book, Spoken From the Heart. Brian Mulroney, who was prime minister during George H.W. Bush’s term in office, said Tuesday that “Mrs. Bush was one of those iconic figures who changed the lives of all who knew her.”
“A woman of great intelligence, conviction and kindness, Barbara Bush held no rancour for anyone, no matter how tough the political battles she may have endured,” Mulroney said in a statement.
In her 1994 autobiography, Barbara Bush: A Memoir, Mrs. Bush said she did her best to keep her opinions from the public while her husband was in office. But she revealed that she disagreed with him on two issues: she supported legal abortion and opposed the sale of assault weapons.
Mrs. Bush raised five children: George W., Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. A sixth child, 3year-old daughter Robin, died of leukemia in 1953.
Along with her memoirs, she wrote C. Fred’s Story and Millie’s Book, based on the lives of her dogs. Proceeds from the books benefited adult and family literacy programs. Laura Bush, a former teacher with a master’s degree in library science, continued her mother-inlaw’s literacy campaign in the White House.