Barbara Bush | |
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Bush's White House portrait (1990)
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First Lady of the United States | |
In role January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 |
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President | George H. W. Bush |
Preceded by | Nancy Reagan |
Succeeded by | Hillary Clinton |
Second Lady of the United States | |
In role January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989 |
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President | Ronald Reagan |
Preceded by | Joan Mondale |
Succeeded by | Marilyn Quayle |
Personal details | |
Born |
Barbara Pierce June 8, 1925 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | George H. W. Bush (1945–present) |
Children | |
Alma mater | Smith College |
Religion | Episcopalian |
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Barbara Bush (née Pierce; born June 8, 1925) is the wife of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of George W. Bush, the 43rd President, and Jeb Bush, the 43rd Governor of Florida. She served as the Second Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Barbara Pierce was born in Flushing, New York. She attended Milton Public School from 1931 to 1937, and Rye Country Day School from 1937-1940. She graduated from Ashley Hall School in Charleston, South Carolina. She met George Herbert Walker Bush at age 16, and the two married in Rye, New York in 1945, while he was on leave during his deployment as a Naval officer in World War II. While George was attending Yale University at age 22, Barbara and George were living in New Haven, Connecticut and had their first son, George Walker Bush, on July 6, 1946. (Thus, her first son, the eventual 43rd President of the United States, was the first Connecticut native to assume that office. George W. would eventually return to his hometown of New Haven in 1964 to attend Yale like his father did.) They had six children together. The Bush family soon moved to Midland, Texas, where their second son, Jeb was born in, on February 11, 1953; as George Bush entered political life, she raised their children.
While First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush worked to advance the cause of universal literacy, and founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.