Former US first lady Barbara Bush dead at 92

WASHINGTON: Former US first lady Barbara Bush ( pix) died on Tuesday at the age of 92, triggering an outpouring of praise for the matriarch of a Republican family once at the apex of American politics.

Barbara and George H. W. Bush were married for 73 years, and the widower “of course is heart-broken to lose his beloved Barbara”, his chief of staff Jean Becker said in a statement.

“He held her hand all day today and was at her side when (she) left this good Earth.”

The ex-president, who is 93 and has been in ill health in recent years, is “determined to be there” for his family while in mourning, Becker added.

Funeral arrangements were due to be announced soon for Barbara, who was also survived by five children, 17 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and her brother, Scott Pierce.

She was preceded in death by her second child, Robin, who died of leukaemia as a toddler.

In honour of her life, President Donald Trump ordered that the US flag be flown at half-staff until sundown on the day she is buried at all public buildings and grounds, as well as military posts and vessels.

Barbara has long been considered the rock at the centre of one of America’s most prominent political families, as the wife of a president and the mother to another – George W. Bush – and to Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor and one-time presidential aspirant. – AFP