Barbara Bush Biography

U.S. First Lady

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Name at birth: Barbara Pierce

Barbara Bush is the wife of president George Bush and the mother of president George W. Bush. She met the elder Bush as a teenager, and dropped out of Smith College to marry him on 6 January 1945 while he was on leave from his service as a World War II Navy pilot. The Bushes had six children: George W., Robin, John (also known as Jeb, later the governor of Florida), Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Robin died of leukemia in 1953. A popular First Lady, Bush was particularly interested in promoting literacy and later created her own private foundation devoted to the cause. She wrote the best-selling Millie's Book (1990), a story of life in the White House as told by the family dog, and the autobiographical Barbara Bush: A Memoir (1994).

Extra credit: Bush is the grandmother and namesake of Barbara Bush, the twin daughter of George W. and Laura Bush.

Bush appears with her family in our special loop on The Bush Clan... Other first ladies of the past include Hillary Clinton, Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolley Madison.

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