{"id":160561,"date":"2018-04-18T06:58:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T10:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=160561"},"modified":"2018-04-18T06:58:11","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T10:58:11","slug":"things-to-remember-about-barbara-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/18\/things-to-remember-about-barbara-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"Things to Remember about Barbara Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo<\/a>
Barbara Bush was the second woman in U.S. history to be both a wife and mother of a US president (Photo By Lauren Gerson, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HOUSTON — Here is a look at several things to know about the life of former first lady Barbara Bush:<\/p>\n

LITERACY EFFORTS<\/p>\n

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy began during her White House years with a goal to improve the lives of disadvantaged Americans by boosting literacy among parents and their children. The foundation partners with local programs and had awarded more than $40 million to create or expand more than 1,500 literacy programs nationwide as of 2014. \u201cFocusing on the family is the best place to start to make this country more literate, and I still feel that being more literate will help us solve so many of the other problems facing our society,\u201d she wrote in her 1994 memoir.<\/p>\n

HISTORY<\/p>\n

Barbara Bush was the second woman in U.S. history to be both a wife and mother of a U.S. president. Her husband, George H.W. Bush, was the nation’s 41st president, while her son George W. Bush, one of the couple’s six children, was the 43rd president. Abigail Adams was the wife of the second president, John Adams, and mother of the sixth president, John Quincy Adams.<\/p>\n

THE WHITE HAIR<\/p>\n

Her brown hair began to grey in the 1950s, while her 3-year-old daughter Pauline, known to her family as Robin, underwent treatment for leukemia. She died in October 1953. Bush eschewed dying her hair, which ultimately turned white. She later said dyed hair didn’t look good on her and credited the colour to the public’s perception of her as \u201ceverybody’s grandmother.\u201d Her son George said a \u201ccrowning achievement\u201d of his father, who was fond of coming up with nicknames for friends and family, was anointing Barbara, \u201cThe Silver Fox.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE PEARLS<\/p>\n

Her triple-strand false pearl necklace sparked a national fashion trend when she wore them to her husband’s inauguration in 1989. The pearls became synonymous with Bush, who later said she selected them to hide the wrinkles in her neck. The candid admission only bolstered her common-sense and down-to-earth public image. A version of the necklace, \u201cthe famous triple strand, hand-knotted on a gold-toned clasp,\u201d was even available for $125 at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

THE TEMPER<\/p>\n

George W. Bush noted in his post-presidency book, \u201cDecision Points,\u201d that he inherited a quick, blunt temper from his mother. His wife Laura said her mother-in-law \u201cmanaged to insult nearly all of my friends with one or another perfectly timed acerbic comment.\u201d Barbara Bush kept her sarcasm under wraps in public, though one noted slip came in 1984, when her husband was running for re-election as vice-president with President Ronald Reagan. Their Democratic challengers, Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, questioned if wealthy people like the Bushes could relate to average Americans. An irritated Barbara Bush told a reporter that Ferraro was a \u201c$4 million — I can’t say it — but it rhymes with rich.\u201d Bush later said she meant \u201cwitch\u201d and apologized; Ferraro accepted the apology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON — Here is a look at several things to know about the life of former first lady Barbara Bush: …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":160562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14121,49885],"class_list":["post-160561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-barbara-bush","tag-barbara-bush-foundation-for-family-literacy","mauthors-michael-graczyk","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}