Barbara Bush
Matriarch of American political dynasty dies at 92
HOUSTON— Barbara Bush, who was the wife of one president and the mother of another and whose embrace of her image as America’s warmhearted grandmother belied her influence and mettle, died April 17. She was 92.
The office of her husband, former president George H.W. Bush, issued a statement Tuesday evening announcing her death but did not disclose the cause. Mrs. Bush was reportedly battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure. Her family announced two days earlier that she had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment” after recent hospitalizations amid her “failing health.”
As the matriarch of one of America’s political dynasties, Bush spent a half century in the public eye. She was portrayed as the consummate
wife and homemaker as her husband rose from Texas oilman to commander in chief. They had six children, the eldest of whom, George W. Bush, became president. Their eldest daughter, Robin,
died at age 3 of leukemia, a tragedy that had a profound impact on the family.
Her husband served two terms as vice president under Ronald Reagan and then one as president, from 1989 to 1993. On his watch, the Cold War ended, and the nation and its allies achieved a swift
and crushing victory over Iraq in the Persian Gulf War - before a faltering
economy largely doomed his reelection prospects.
George W. Bush, a former governor of Texas, was president from 2001 to 2009, and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he led the country into long-lasting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the rumblings of the Great Recession.
Only Abigail Adams, whose husband, John Adams, and son John Quincy Adams served as the second and sixth presidents, respectively, of the United States, shared Mrs. Bush’s distinction of being the wife and mother of commanders in chief.
Another Bush son, Jeb, served two terms as Florida governor before unsuccessfully seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
Mrs. Bush was proud of her family’s achievements but expressed reservations about whether it was healthy in a democracy for one family to accumulate so much power.
In a “Today” show interview, she called Jeb Bush “by far the best-qualified man.” But “there are a lot of great families, and it’s not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified,” she remarked, adding — with her characteristic bluntness — that “we’ve had enough Bushes.”
But once her son entered the race, she was 100 percent in — and she did not mince words about her distaste for his primary opponent, Donald Trump. In a joint interview with Jeb before the New Hampshire primary, she unflinchingly stated that it was “incomprehensible” to her that anyone would vote for Trump, particularly women in light of his abusive comments about them.
Instinctively understanding how Trump’s apparent fondness for Russian leader Vladimir Putin might not sit well with voters, she fur
ther noted: “Putin has endorsed him, for heaven’s sakes. Putin the killer, Putin the worst.”
A relatively unknown national figure until her husband became vice president, Mrs. Bush was comfortable as a backstage force, maintaining stability during her family’s more than two dozen moves before entering the vice president’s official residence in 1981.
Within the Bush clan, she was known as “the enforcer.”
“She may be a lot of people’s grandmother,” Jeb Bush told Newsday in 1990 when asked about his mother’s soothing, even matronly persona as first lady, “but she was our drill sergeant when we were growing up.”
By her account, she had evolved from a shy,
socially “square” 16-yearold schoolgirl smitten at the sight of her 17-year-old future husband at a Christmas dance in Greenwich, Connecticut. At 19, she left her elite women’s college — Smith — to marry him. Within a few years, they would leave behind
their lives of wealth and privilege in the Northeast as George H.W. Bush sought his fortune as a Texas oilman before winning a congressional seat in 1966. Mrs. Bush accompanied him across the country and around the world as he served as U.N. ambassador, leader of the Republican National Committee, U.S. envoy to China and director of the CIA before becoming Reagan’s running mate.
According to Peter and Rochelle Schweizer’s 2004 book, “The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty,” Barbara Bush for years maintained and meticulously curated a network of tens of thousands of contacts and friends that she saved
on index cards for social and fund-raising reasons.
By the time the Bushes got to the White House and automated the card file, they had a Christmas card list in excess of 10,000 names.
As a political spouse, she contrasted sharply with her predecessor, Nancy Reagan, who had at times generated unwanted attention with her spend
ing, designer clothes and intrusions into her husband’s administration. Mrs. Bush presented herself as the antithesis of glamour and excess. She endeared herself to many with her droll frankness, joking about her prematurely white hair.
The two wives were formidable women, protective of their husbands, and their relationship during the Reagan administration was noticeably icy. The Bushes were seldom invited to the Reagan White House’s family quarters.
As first lady, Mrs. Bush established the nonprofit Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, to which she donated nearly $800,000 in after-tax proceeds from her best-sell
ing “Millie’s Book” (1990), which channeled the voice of her White House pet dog.
She also encouraged people to volunteer at homeless shelters and Head Start projects, and she promoted AIDS awareness when the disease was still highly stigmatized and misunderstood. In 1989, she made front
page headlines when she visited Grandma’s House, a pediatric AIDS care center in the District, and cradled an infant patient at a time when many people mistakenly believed the disease could be contracted through mere proximity to the virus. She attended in 1990
the funeral of Ryan White, the teenager who had fought to return to public school in Indiana after he contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion. (Her husband signed into law what is now the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to help provide services for people with the disease, but AIDS advocates have regarded the program as inadequately funded for years.)
Mrs. Bush sat on the board of the historically
black Morehouse College in Atlanta and was reported to have played a role in the selection of her friend Louis Sullivan, the president of Morehouse’s medical school, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Despite her preferences for staying behind the scenes, Mrs. Bush wasn’t shy about expressing her own views. At times, Mrs. Bush made public statements that seemed to conflict with her husband’s policies, including his opposition to abortion rights and gun-control measures. But she adamantly resisted being pulled into discussions
about personal and controversial topics, dispatching unwanted questions with salty humor or a sharp, “Next question.”
In a rare misstep while joking with reporters, she referred to Geraldine Ferraro, her husband’s vice-presidential opponent in 1984, as “that $4 million — I can’t say it, but it rhymes with ‘rich.’” She quickly apologized.
The White House staff adopted a nickname bestowed on her by her children — the “Silver Fox” — and took care not to cross her. She was known to stare down aides she thought were not performing up to task for her husband.
During four years as first lady, Mrs. Bush consistently ranked among the nation’s most-admired women, with high poll numbers that contrasted with her husband’s tumbling ratings. During the 1992 election, she was often deployed by the Bush campaign to humanize a president not known for charisma or the common touch.
She was, many commentators agreed, his most valuable asset in a race against then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, an agile campaigner who pounded Bush on the economy, and wild card candidate Ross Perot, a Texas billionaire running as an independent.
Mrs. Bush generally managed to avoid the sorts of intrigues and uproars that perturbed her predecessor as first lady and her successor,
Hillary Clinton, a lawyer and activist, who promised to be a partner in her husband’s public life.
In her no-nonsense way, Mrs. Bush rejected the idea of the election being a referendum on dramatic generational change and pushed back against polls that said she was better liked by the electorate
than her husband. “Nobody is jealous of me,” she told The Wash
ington Post. “I mean, look at me. Who would be? It’s easy to like me. They like George, and they respect him. But he has to say no to people because he has to do what’s right for the country, and that’s hard.”