29.03.2024

Barbara Bush: From finishing school to the First Ladies club, in photos

Bush held the rare distinction of having been both the wife of a US president, George H.W. Bush, and the mother of another, George W. Bush. (There’s only one other first lady in US history to have done both, Abigail Adams.)

Former first lady Barbara Bush, a source of guidance and love to both her husband and son during their White House stints, according to friends, has died at age 92, Her passing was announced on Twitter by a family spokesman.

Because of her undyed mane, her husband nicknamed her “the Silver Fox.” Bush was a champion of children’s literacy, and penned two books in the voice of her dogs, C. Fred and Millie. She was also known for dropping the occasional acerbic comment about her family’s political opponents.

Here’s a look at her career as the matriarch of the prominent Bush political clan, in pictures:

Barbara Pierce was born in 1925. She graduated from Ashley Hall, a finishing school (an all-girls college prep school) in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1943. (AP Photo

She married George H.W. Bush in 1945, in Rye, New York. Here, she appears with her husband and their son, George W. Bush, in 1955. (George Bush Presidential Library via AP)

The Bushes moved from the eastern US to Texas in the early 1950s, eventually settling in Houston in 1959. This family picture shows them there with their five children in 1964, two years before George H.W. Bush won a seat in the US House of Representatives. Another daughter, Robin, died of leukemia when she was three years old, in 1953. (White House via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX)

Barbara Bush campaigned with her husband during his run for vice president in 1980. Here she appears with her husband, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, and his wife Nancy. (AP Photo)

Barbara Bush and vice president George H.W. Bush with their grandchildren in 1987, during H.W.’s second term as vice president under Reagan. (White House via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX/David Valdez)

A few years later, it was Barbara Bush who was White House-bound. Here she is on her husband’s inauguration day in 1989. (CNP /MediaPunch/IPX/Ron Sachs)

As first lady, Barbara Bush had a front-row seat to the geopolitical tensions of the day. Here she listens in to a conversation between her husband and USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, in 1991. (White House via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX)

During her years at the White House, Barbara Bush mingled with notable figures of the time, including princess Diana of Wales, Mother Teresa, and, shown here in 1992, president Boris Yeltsin of Russia. (White House via CNP /MediaPunch/IPX/David Valdez)

Barbara Bush returned to the White House’s social functions as mother to president George W. Bush. Here she appears at the service for America’s National Day of Prayer and Remembrance in 2001. (White House via CNP/MediaPunch/IPX/Eric Draper)

She could have again become a White House regular for a third time had her son Jeb Bush been successful in his 2016 presidential bid. Here, the candidate gives his mother a kiss in 2015. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Barbara Bush stands with other members of the exclusive group of living US first ladies in 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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