Quicknation    Barbara Bush

Images of Barbara Bush: G Y AOL AV MSN Books of Barbara Bush: B

Barbara Bush results from: AltaVista A9 AOL Clusty Gigablast Google Lycos MSN Teoma Wisenut Yahoo

Barbara Bush This article concerns the wife of the 41st U.S. President, George H.W. Bush. For the daughter of George W. Bush, see Barbara and Jenna Bush. (born June 8, 1925Barbara Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, and was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of current U.S. President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and the sister of Scott Pierce.

table was the third child of the former Pauline Robinson (1896-1949) and her husband, Marvin Pierce (1893-1969), who later became president of McCall Corporation, the publisher of the popular women's magazines . She was born and raised in the suburban town of Rye, New York, near New York City and went to Rye Country Day School, followed by boarding school at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina.

Her ancestor, an early New England colonist named Thomas Pierce, was also the ancestor to Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States.

Her mother — whom magazine once described as "beautiful, fabulous, critical, and meddling" and "a former beauty from Ohio with extravagant tastes" — was killed in a car accident. The accident was caused when her husband, who was driving, lost control when he reached over to stop a cup of hot coffee from sliding across the seat onto his wife. The car crashed into a stone wall, killing her instantly.

It was at a dance during Christmas vacation when she was 17 that she met George H. W. Bush, a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. One and a half years later, the two married, just before he went off to World War II as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot.

When he returned on leave, she had dropped out of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they married.

After the war, he graduated from Yale University, and they moved to Midland, Texas. Six children were born to them:

ol

Meanwhile, George H. W. Bush built a business in the oil industry.

The Bush family moved 29 times over the years. She managed her children while her husband, who served in a variety of government jobs, was away.

Today, she lives with her husband in Houston, Texas, and at their sprawling estate, the Bush Compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. They are frequent honored guests at the White House.

She serves on the Boards of AmeriCares and the Mayo Clinic, and heads the Barbara Bush Foundation.

She has written two books, , 1994.

Two primary schools in Texas, a Houston Independent School District school, and a school in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, are named after her. The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine is named after Bush. Also named for her is one of George W. Bush's twin daughters.

Barbara Bush is well-known for delivering tart comments and sometimes controversial opinions.

On March 18, 2003, she stated on ABC's Good Morning America, "Why should we hear about bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"[1], [2]. Opponents of the former first lady said that this statement showed how callous and cold she is, while supporters countered that she was merely dismissing speculation of deaths before the Iraq War began.

On September 5, 2005, while visiting Hurricane Katrina relief centers in Houston, TX, she stated on the NPR program "Marketplace, "Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're gonna move to Houston.' What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas... Every is so overwhelmed by the hospitality, and so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them." Audio clip from Marketplace. Critics called these comments elitist and racist (the 15,000 evacuees in the Astrodome were mostly poor and black) [3] [4], while supporters countered that she was expressing the gratitude she had heard from the evacuees for the help and welcome they had received in Houston. [5] [6]