Skip to main content

George and Barbara Bush, a 'storybook' 73-year marriage




They met at a Christmas dance. She was 17. He was 18.
Two years later they were married. Now 73 years later, they are the longest-married couple in presidential history.
"George Bush knows how I feel," Barbara Bush has said. "He is the hero... He is my hero."
With her former president husband still at her side, former first lady Barbara Bush has decided to decline further medical treatment for health problems and focus instead on "comfort care" at their home in Houston.
Family spokesman Jim McGrath disclosed Barbara Bush's decision Sunday. The 92-year-old had been in the hospital recently for congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She had heart valve replacement surgery in 2009 and a long history of treatment for Graves' disease, a thyroid condition.
The couple's relationship is a true love story, which granddaughter Jenna Bush Hager described Monday as "remarkable."
The former president "still says, 'I love you Barbie' every night," Hager said on NBC's "Today", where she works. They had six children, including Hager's father, former president George W. Bush, making Barbara Bush one of only two first ladies to also be a presidential mother. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, the nation's second president, and mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president.
George H.W. Bush, 93, has described the mother of their six children as "the mainstay, of course, the parent who was always there to help solve the daily problems and emergencies of teen and preteen life."



In her 1994 memoir, Barbara Bush describes her and her husband as "the two luckiest people in the world, and when all the dust is settled and all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family and friends. We have been inordinately blessed, and we know that."
The former president was a naval aviator in training when they met.
"I'm not much at recalling what people wear, but that particular occasion stands out in my memory," he says in his autobiography.
The band was playing Glenn Miller tunes and he asked a friend from Rye, New York, if he knew the girl across the room in the green and red holiday dress. The friend introduced him to Barbara Pierce, a publisher's daughter from Rye who was going to school in South Carolina.
The next song was a waltz.
"Since I didn't waltz, we sat the dance out. And several more after that, talking and getting to know each other," George H.W. Bush said. "It was a storybook meeting."
Within eight months, they'd met each other's families, were engaged in August 1943 and married Jan. 6, 1945, four months after Bush was shot down over the Pacific. He'd been the Navy's youngest aviator when he got his wings and carried the name "Barbara" on his Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber.



After the war, he attended Yale and they moved to Texas. Her husband made his mark in the oil business as the couple grew their family and turned to politics, a journey that would take them around the world and into the White House.

"You have given me joy that few men know," George Bush wrote to her, according to a collection of letters published in 1999.
"I have climbed perhaps the highest mountain in the world, but even that cannot hold a candle to being Barbara's husband," he also said.
Photos taken of the couple by The Associated Press over the decades have captured moments of care, such as when Barbara Bush applied sunscreen to the 41st president's nose at a 2015 baseball game between the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners; and candor, notably after Bush stepped on his wife's toe in 1989 while boarding Air Force One.
Their marriage also has endured more serious trials.
A daughter, Robin, died in 1953 of leukemia a few weeks before her 4th birthday.
Barbara Bush has recalled a bout of depression in the mid-1970s.
"Night after night, George held me weeping in his arms while I tried to explain my feelings," she said. "I almost wonder why he didn't leave me."
Just last year, allegations surfaced that Bush, who for more than five years has used a wheelchair for mobility, inappropriately touched more than a half dozen women on their buttocks as they stood next to him to take photos.
Through McGrath, Bush issued repeated apologies "to anyone he has offended."
"George Bush simply does not have it in his heart to knowingly cause anyone distress," McGrath said.
Also last year, they both wound up in the same Houston hospital — the former president with pneumonia; his wife with bronchitis.
In 2013, she told C-SPAN in an interview that they pray aloud each night "and sometimes we fight over whose turn it is."
In the same conversation, she said she didn't fear death for herself or "my precious George."
"I know there is a great God, and I'm not worried," she said.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

President George Weah's One Day National Forum Successfully Attended by 26 Political Parties

On Thursday, August 8, 2018, President George Weah had a sit down with 26 political parties of Liberia.  The meeting aimed at advancing ideals that promote the spirit of national unity and political tolerance between opposition political parties and the government.  ANC, LP and UP attended the meeting as a team. According to Deputy Minister Eugene L. Fahngon, Deputy Minister for Press and Public Affairs at Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs & Tourism, all 26 political parties attended and participated from start to finish.  Even though, social media was buzzing about AB Dillion walking out of the meeting, he walked out as an individual and not a political party, "the invitation was extended to political parties and not to individuals," Minister Fahngon stated in his live video.  Each political party gave ideals and recommendations, which made the meeting a great success.  According to  Deputy Minister Fahngon, "there will be future engagements as such.&quo

What President Trump and Kim Jong Un Ate

The historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continued midday Tuesday, as the leaders satisfied their appetites while holding negotiations with a contingent of advisers over a working lunch. The lunch, which followed a 45-minute one-on-one meeting between the leaders earlier in the morning and bilateral discussion with senior aides, was held at the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa Island. It was far from an intimate affair, with each leader accompanied by a bevy of senior staff, according to the White House. Joining Trump were Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Advisor John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Deputy Assistant to the President for Asian Affairs Matthew Pottinger. Kim was accompanied by Kim Yong Chol , the former spy chief and one of North Korea’s chief negotiators, as well as Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, former

Snapchat Slammed for Domestic Violence Meme Featuring Rihanna and Chris Brown

If Kylie Jenner ‘s stock-plummeting Snapchat rant didn’t make you delete the app, maybe this will. Over the weekend, Snapchat found itself in hot water after a now-deleted domestic violence meme featuring Rihanna and Chris Brown went viral. The meme, which was an advertisement for the app “Would You Rather,” asked users whether they would prefer to “slap Rihanna” or “punch Chris Brown.” Almost immediately, screenshots of the ad appeared on Twitter, with many criticizing Snapchat for making light of domestic violence. Is it just me, or is this ad that popped up on my Snapchat extremely tone deaf? Like what were they thinking with this? pic.twitter.com/7kP9RHcgNG — Royce Mann (@TheRoyceMann) March 12, 2018 Many considered the ad a mockery of Rihanna’s experience with domestic violence. In 2009, Brown was arrested and charged for physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna hours before she was to perform at the Grammy awards. Since the incident, Rihanna has spo