Ken Herman: The passing of an unelected Texas political icon,

The last time I saw Barbara Bush in person was in February 2016 in the West Running Brook Middle School cafeteria in Derry, N.H.

The event was sort of sad and symbolic. A presidential candidacy was fading away, and with it a political dynasty as we’d known it through the presidencies of Barbara Bush’s husband and one of her sons.

On that cold New Hampshire day in that middle school cafeteria, she was back on the presidential campaign trail, this time for son Jeb’s campaign that, by then, was floundering toward failure.

But Barbara Bush was doing her 90-year-old best (and her best at 90 was better than lots of folks’ best at 50) to get another son elected to the White House.

“Jeb,” she said in introducing him, “is the nicest, wisest, most caring, loyal, disciplined, not by me. But he’s not a bragger. We don’t allow that. But he’s decent and honest, and he’s everything we need in a president. His dad and I are very, very proud of him. Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, Jeb Bush.”

The United States, however, perhaps less concerned than it once was about things like decency and honesty, opted to go in a different direction. A very different direction.

Two weeks later, having run sixth in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Jeb Bush dropped out of the race.

The passing of Barbara Bush serves as another milestone reminder in the probable passing of a political dynasty whose future now might depend on Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Jeb’s son, who may find that his time has come as his family’s time has gone. Ditto, perhaps, for the party as the Bushes knew it and led it for many years, so much so that LBJ Foundation President and CEO Mark Updegrove’s recent book about the two George Bushes is entitled “The Last Republicans.”

(Footnote that must be noted: George P. has become a devotee of President Donald Trump despite the savaging Trump gave “Low-Energy Jeb” during the 2016 primaries.)

I crossed paths with Mrs. Bush several times on several campaign trails. Beloved and respected by all, I appreciated the appropriately feisty way she dealt with those of us in the press. You would have loved watching it. You very well might have cheered her on.

Her campaign appearance with son Jeb during the 2016 primary season came at a time when I found Bush-fatigued voters looking for the next thing. Generally, it was nothing particularly personal or political about the Bushes. It was more about moving on.

“We don’t need another King Bush,” Dave Love, then a 61-year-old handyman in Derry who had backed the previous Bushes who ran for president but in 2016 was for Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s insurgency candidacy that was out-flanked by insurgent Trump.

And for some younger voters, the Bush name, so familiar to so many of us, was history-book stuff. Vincent Vaughns, an 18-yearold then preparing for his first trip to the ballot box, told me this about Jeb Bush: “He was the old governor of Florida, I believe.” Ouch. But at a Jeb Bush event at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H., I chatted with Susan Warren, who proudly wore a “Jeb!” sticker as she sat in the front row awaiting his campaign event. She very proudly and primly talked up the values she shared with the Bushes.

“We don’t sling mud at other people. We say what we’re going to do. We are leaders. And we’re not followers. And we state what we want to do and put it into place with reason,” Warren, 72, said.

Mark McKinnon, a former top adviser to George W. Bush, watched from the sidelines as Bush struggled, sometimes with the famous family name as disadvantage.

“We’re at a point in this country where people just want something really different and they’re rejecting anything that they’ve seen,” McKinnon said back then. “And they’ve seen the Bushes before . ... Jeb seems like kind of from another time.”

Jeb Bush understood the political conundrum.

“I’m part of the establishment because I’m Barbara Bush’s son,” he said as she watched in that school cafeteria. “I embrace that each and every day. I’m proud of my dad; I’m proud of my brother; I’m proud of being a Bush.”

After his mother introduced him in the cafeteria, he said: “Wow. Mom, my crowd sizes usually aren’t this large. I wonder why. It is such a joy to be with friends, to be with my mother who I adore, who is an inspiration. In the probably 90 versions of town hall meetings I’ve done all across this state how many times people came up and said, ‘Your mother. I love your mother. I love your mother.’ She’s not as great as everybody thinks she is. I can just tell you that.”

The joke drew good-natured boos.

For a long, long time, and with Barbara Bush as a vital part of the family’s political business, being a Bush was a great thing to be on election days and crucial to many GOP successes: Here’s a stat: It’s been almost 34 years since a Republican other than a Bush prevailed in the popular vote in a presidential election.

RIP, Mrs. Bush. Is it appropriate to say the same thing for the brand and style of politics in which she was such an active participant?