{"id":57693,"date":"2018-04-21T08:50:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T15:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=57693"},"modified":"2018-04-21T16:12:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T23:12:07","slug":"former-first-lady-barbara-bushs-funeral-at-st-martins-episcopal-church-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=57693","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Pierce Bush June 8, 1925 \u2013 April 17, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Houston, TX&#8230;A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at the age of 92. She is survived by her husband of 73<br \/>\nyears, President George H. W. Bush; five children and their spouses; 17 grandchildren; seven great<br \/>\ngrandchildren; and her brother, Scott Pierce. She was preceded in death by her second child, Pauline<br \/>\nRobinson \u201cRobin\u201d Bush, and her siblings Martha Rafferty and James R. Pierce.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2JI9Zuh5rM4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Her husband\u2019s election as the 41st President elevated the plain-spoken, faux-pearl wearing, distant relative<br \/>\nof President Franklin Pierce to First Lady from January 20, 1989 to January 20, 1993. Aware that she was<br \/>\nnot elected and carried no official duties, Mrs. Bush instructed her staff: \u201cEach day we should do<br \/>\nsomething to help others.\u201d So along with the endless entertaining and public ceremonies, she went to soup<br \/>\nkitchens, homeless shelters and senior centers. She participated in events supporting worthy causes from<br \/>\nveterans\u2019 hospitals, to teen pregnancy programs and the Boys &#038; Girls Clubs.<\/p>\n<p>Notably at the time, Mrs. Bush visited facilities for AIDS victims, held infected babies and hugged adults.<br \/>\nIn so doing, she helped erase the stigma of that disease, and encouraged her husband\u2019s administration to<br \/>\nincrease funding for AIDS research and treatment. Mrs. Bush also came to the rescue of the Salvation<br \/>\nArmy in 1989, when several Washington, D.C. area malls decided to ban the Army\u2019s red kettle bellringers<br \/>\nclaiming they were a nuisance to Christmas shoppers. Outraged, the First Lady made a very public<br \/>\ntrip to a local mall that was allowing the bell-ringers, and dropped $10 into the red kettle. That ended the<br \/>\nban then and there.<\/p>\n<p>But Barbara Bush\u2019s signature cause was literacy, a passion that began during the 1980s when statistics<br \/>\nshowed that 35 million U.S. adults could not read above the eighth-grade level \u2013 while 23 million were at<br \/>\nor below fourth-grade proficiency. Inspired by business leaders like publisher Harold McGraw, public<br \/>\nofficials like Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois, and other literacy advocates across the country, Mrs. Bush<br \/>\nquickly came to believe that, in her words, \u201cif more people could read or write, we could be much closer<br \/>\nto solving so many other problems that our country faces.\u201d Furthermore, she recognized the vital<br \/>\nimportance of family literacy \u2013 ensuring literacy programs were accessible to help struggling parents and<br \/>\nchildren so they would have an equal chance to succeed in life.<\/p>\n<p>Her literacy advocacy gradually expanded with her public profile. During her husband\u2019s vice-presidential<br \/>\nyears, for example, she unveiled billboards, visited Head Start and Even Start classes, supported<br \/>\nalternative school programs for at-risk students like Cities in Schools, wrote dozens of articles, and<br \/>\nparticipated in a variety of media programs to raise awareness of the basic need for every citizen to be<br \/>\nable to read. In 1984, Mrs. Bush also published C. Fred\u2019s Story: A Dog\u2019s Life, which raised $100,000 for<br \/>\nLiteracy Volunteers of America and Laubach Literacy Action.<\/p>\n<p>Then starting as First Lady in 1989, Mrs. Bush took the family literacy movement to a new level of<br \/>\nnational awareness when she launched the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, focusing<br \/>\nsimultaneously on early childhood education for preschoolers and adult literacy for their parents. In 1990,<br \/>\nshe published a second book, Millie\u2019s Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush, which sold more than 300,000<br \/>\ncopies in its first year and raised nearly $900,000 for her new foundation. She also began Mrs. Bush&#8217;s<br \/>\nStory Time, a national radio program that stressed the importance of reading aloud to children. In 1991,<br \/>\nMrs. Bush and other advocates celebrated the passage of the National Literacy Act, which created the<br \/>\nNational Institute for Literacy and permitted the use of libraries and other municipal property as evening<br \/>\nliteracy centers for adults.<\/p>\n<p>After leaving Washington, Mrs. Bush continued to volunteer her time to worthy causes and help others.<br \/>\nHer Foundation for Family Literacy, from which she stepped aside in 2012, has raised and awarded over<br \/>\n$110 million to create or expand family literacy programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.<br \/>\nShe also served as AmeriCares ambassador-at-large; a Mayo Clinic Foundation board member; and a<br \/>\nsupporter of organizations including the Leukemia Society of America, the Ronald McDonald House, and<br \/>\nthe Boys &#038; Girls Club of America.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Barbara Bush shares the rare distinction with Abigail Adams of being both a wife to, and<br \/>\nmother of, a president. She addressed both the 2000 and the 2004 Republican National Conventions that<br \/>\nnominated George W., and actively campaigned for him during both national campaigns. In 2016, at the<br \/>\nage of 90, she also campaigned for her son and former Florida Governor, Jeb, as he vied for the<br \/>\nRepublican presidential nomination. Another unique political moment came in November 1998, when<br \/>\nGeorge W. was re-elected Governor of Texas and Jeb was elected to the first of his two terms as<br \/>\nGovernor of Florida. Today, her grandson, George P. Bush, serves as the newly re-elected Texas Land<br \/>\nCommissioner.<\/p>\n<p>Barbara Pierce was born in New York City on June 8, 1925, the third of Marvin and Pauline (nee<br \/>\nRobinson) Pierce\u2019s four children. She was raised in Indian Village in Rye, New York, and received her<br \/>\nprimary education at Milton Public School and Rye Country Day School before attending Ashley Hall, a<br \/>\nboarding school in South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>At a December 1941 Christmas dance, neighborhood friend Jack Wozencraft introduced 16 year-old<br \/>\nBarbara to her future husband, \u201cPoppy\u201d Bush of Greenwich, Connecticut. They danced briefly and sat out<br \/>\nthe waltz that followed, chatting for 15 minutes. The courtship that followed was largely conducted<br \/>\ncourtesy of the U.S. Postal Service, as George had already determined he would join the fledgling war<br \/>\neffort following the attack at Pearl Harbor. They were secretly engaged just before George Bush was<br \/>\ndispatched to the Pacific where he flew torpedo bombers.<\/p>\n<p>With the onset of war, young Barbara spent a summer working as a gofer at a nuts and bolts factory in<br \/>\nPort Chester, New York. She eventually interrupted her studies at Smith College in 1944 as the couple<br \/>\nprepared for marriage in Rye on January 6, 1945. (At the time of Mrs. Bush\u2019s passing, the Bushes were<br \/>\nAmerica\u2019s longest-married \u201cfirst couple.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>After his honorable discharge at the end of World War II, Mr. Bush enrolled in Yale University, and the<br \/>\nnewlyweds moved to New Haven, Connecticut. There, the couple&#8217;s first child, George Walker Bush, was<br \/>\nborn on July 6, 1946. Mr. Bush graduated from Yale in 1948, and immediately set out for Texas and the<br \/>\noil business \u2013 sending for his young family once established in Odessa. The first of their 30-plus<br \/>\nresidential moves during their marriage took them to various towns in southern California before they<br \/>\nsettled in Midland, Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Tragedy struck twice early in the Bushes\u2019 marriage: first in 1949 when Barbara\u2019s parents were involved in<br \/>\na car crash that killed her mother, Pauline; and again in 1953 when the Bushes\u2019 second child, three yearold<br \/>\nRobin, succumbed to leukemia. They welcomed three more sons while in Midland \u2013 John Ellis or<br \/>\n\u201cJeb,\u201d Neil and Marvin. In August of 1959, the Bushes moved to Houston and welcomed their second<br \/>\ndaughter, Dorothy or \u201cDoro,\u201d that same month.<\/p>\n<p>The dawn of George H. W. Bush\u2019s career in elective politics in 1962 introduced Barbara Bush to the<br \/>\ncampaign trail that she would relentlessly tread for the next 54 years on behalf of her husband, her friends<br \/>\nand political allies, and her family. The family moved to Washington, DC in late 1966 following Mr.<br \/>\nBush\u2019s election to the U.S. House from Texas\u2019 seventh congressional district; and to New York and the<br \/>\nWaldorf Hotel in 1971 following his appointment by President Nixon as Ambassador to the United<br \/>\nNations.<\/p>\n<p>Other presidential appointments, and family moves, followed: Chairman of the Republican National<br \/>\nCommittee back in Washington; Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing (then Peking); and Director<br \/>\nof Central Intelligence in northern Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>The Bushes returned home to Houston after the 1976 election, where Mr. Bush quietly assembled a team<br \/>\nand prepared to mount his 1980 candidacy for the presidency. He accepted Ronald Reagan\u2019s offer as<br \/>\nrunning mate, and was sworn in as Vice President on January 20, 1981.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the demands and visibility of being First Lady, Mrs. Bush called her eight years as wife of the<br \/>\nVice President \u2013 from 1981 to 1989 \u2013 \u201cthe busiest of my life.\u201d In all, she spent 1,629 days and 1.3 million<br \/>\nmiles traveling away from Washington. While in the Nation\u2019s Capital, she hosted 1,192 events and<br \/>\nattended another 1,232 events during the same span.<\/p>\n<p>Several schools, libraries and parks have been named for Mrs. Bush, including middle schools in San<br \/>\nAntonio and Irving, Texas, and elementary schools in Houston, Texas, the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie,<br \/>\nTexas, and Mesa, Arizona. Also bearing her name is the Barbara Bush Children&#8217;s Hospital at Maine<br \/>\nMedical Center in Portland.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs. Bush chronicled her life\u2019s story in two autobiographies: Barbara Bush: A Memoir (1994), which<br \/>\ncovered her life through her husband\u2019s term in office; and Reflections (2003), which focused on life after<br \/>\nthe White House and her first son\u2019s ascension to the presidency. A Memoir was re-released with updated<br \/>\nintroductions by her children in 2015 to coincide with Mrs. Bush\u2019s 90th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGeorge Bush and I have been the two luckiest people in the world, and when all the dust has settled and<br \/>\nall the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family and friends,\u201d Barbara Bush wrote in 1993.<br \/>\n\u201cWe have been inordinately blessed, and we know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy at<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/barbarabush.org\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Houston, TX&#8230;A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at the age of 92. She is survived by her husband of 73 years, President George H. W. Bush; five children and their spouses; 17 grandchildren; seven great grandchildren; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,4,1,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-life-style","category-news","category-obituaries","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Fullscreen-capture-4212018-84911-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}