America's Love Affair with First Ladies
Barbara Bush and her dog, Millie, are interviewed in the Green Room
by Paula Zahn for CBS This Morning October 30, 1992.
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It all began with Martha Washington, the wife of the first president of the United States. When she took up residence in the President's House in New York City in 1789, the American people had a new interest--their first lady. Since Martha Washington's time the interest of the American people in the wife of their president has grown stronger and more affectionate.
From the moment her husband becomes president, a first lady's life is changed. She becomes a public figure--a celebrity, whose face is seen in every magazine and newspaper and on every television screen. She becomes the country's official hostess, the person who welcomes the rulers of many nations to the United States in the name of the American people. Her personal life has to take second place to her responsibilities as first lady.
One of the biggest jobs any first lady has is running the president's official house, the White House. There are 132 rooms in the White House and a large staff of household employees. It is the first lady's job to see that the White House staff does its work well. Since the White House is the only American house many important visitors see, the first lady must make sure that it is well run and a pleasant place to visit.
The duties of the first lady have grown more and more demanding as the importance of the United States has grown among the nations of the world. Today the first lady is expected to take part in her husband's election campaign if she is able. Since the United States has become a leading power in the world, Washington has become a world capital as well as the national capital. The first lady is now expected to be hostess to the world, as well as to the nation. She must entertain people whose customs and language are completely different from those of the United States. And millions of people--some tourists, some famous diplomats--pass though the White House each year.
Laura Bush hosts a coffee for Jolanta Kwasniewska, wife of Polish President
Aleksander Kwasniewski, during the Polish State Visit, July 17, 2002.
The family that lives in the White House has always been the subject of newspaper and magazine stories. Everything the president's family does becomes national and even worldwide news. Therefore there is little privacy. Many first ladies have disliked this part of their official lives. It has been especially difficult for first ladies who have tried to raise children in the busy White House.
But many first ladies, despite all of their household duties, have played important roles in their husbands' careers and in the life of the nation. Their reward has been the lasting affection of the American people.
Former First Ladies Betty Ford, Barbara Bush, Lady Bird Johnson and Rosalynn Carter were honored on October 26, 1999 with the Distinguished Achievement Award by The Dana Foundation. Each was recognized for her lifetime contributions to health and education, and was able to recommend a $100,000 Dana Foundation grant to an organization(s) of her choice. Nancy Reagan was honored also, but unable to attend
due to a fractured rib.
Martha Washington
White House Years, 1789 - 1797
With no role model for the post of presidential wife, the pleasant Martha Washington assumed the hostess duties that, until only recently, defined the job of First Lady. Believed to be the wealthiest widow in Virginia at the time she married George, she was nearly a year older than the President, who treated the two children she'd had with her first husband as if they were his own.
Martha is credited with keeping the domestic side of the President's demanding life running smoothly in both New York and Philadelphia (before the nation's capitol was moved to Washington, D.C.) and with lightening the social obligations of her husband's life.
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Abigail Adams
White House Years, 1797 - 1801
Known for her warmth and intelligence, she was a trusted behind-the-scenes political adviser to her husband. A prolific letter writer, Abigail memorably wrote to her husband while he was attending the 1776 Continental Congress in Philidelphia, admonishing him to:
"Remember the Ladies {in the new laws being crafted}, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors."
The first of the First Ladies to live in the new presidential mansion in Washington, D.C., she oversaw its earliest formal event, held on New Year's Day, 1801. Until Barbara Bush, she was the only woman in American history to have been a president's wife and, later, a president's mother (John Quincy Adams).
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Dolley Madison
White House Years, 1809 - 1817
Her down-to-earth manner made her a populist First Lady. Yet Dolley Madison wore only the smartest fashions and helped lend a certain aura and authority to the emerging role of First Lady. One Washington writer of the era raved that no one could have conducted herself "with more perfect propriety than {Dolley} did."
When the British set fire to the White House in 1814, she is credited with helping to rescue many of her husband's papers - including his Constitutional Convention notes - as well as an important portrait of President Washington. Her quick thinking and valor inspired poets Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet' to write:
"The roofs fell in
And the cut glass burst -
But she saved George Washington's
Portrait first."
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Eleanor Roosevelt
White House Years, 1933 - 1945
Traditional in her devotion to her husband's career, Eleanor Roosevelt nonetheless struck out on her own in ways no First Lady had before her. As "the public conscience of the New Deal," FDR's famous economic-recovery initiative, Eleanor traveled the country endlessly as if to show the disaffected firsthand that the White House hadn't forgotten them.
A fearless voice for civil rights - she famously resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when the group barred Marian Anderson from singing at Constitution Hall - she was one of the twentyeth century's most vocal advocates for human dignity.
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Jacqueline Kennedy
White House Years, 1961 - 1963
There was a palpable sense of possibility in the air when, at just 31, "Jackie" - as the entranched nation would simply refer to her - moved into the White House with the equally youthful new President, John F. Kennedy. Jackie educated her country with a memorable tour of the executive mansion on national TV.
Her stylish entertainment, showcasing the day's most prominent artists and entertainers, broadened the horizons of countless Ameicans and raised the country's cultural profile in the eys of the world. During her husband's tragically short time in office, Jackie through her grace and intelligence, was an effective presence on the diplomatic front.
(On one trip, the President called himself "the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.") After JFK's assassination, she helped sustain the Camelot aura for her husband's admirers.
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Nancy Reagan
White House Years, 1981 - 1989
Although Nancy Reagan brought Hollywood glamour to the White House, she combined it with political savvy and a devotion to her husband. She won the respect of parents across the country - with her "just say no" to drugs campaign - and represented America in style as she accompanied on of its most popular presidents on countless diplomatic journeys.
Her behind-the-scenes grit beame more obvious to the nation years after leaving the White House, when Alzheimer's struck the former President, and Nancy joined the fight to find a cure for the heartbreaking disease.
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Barbara Bush
White House Years, 1989 - 1993
Rarely has a First Lady been greeted by the American people and the press with the approbation and warmth accorded to Barbara Pierce Bush. Perhaps this is prompted by the image she calls "everybody's grandmother." People are comfortable with her white hair, her warm, relaxed manner, and her keen wit. With characteristic directness, she says people like her because they know "I'm fair and I like children and I adore my husband."
Barbara was born in 1925 to Pauline and Marvin Pierce, who later became president of McCall Corporation. In the suburban town of Rye, New York, she had a happy childhood. She went to boarding school at Ashley Hall in South Carolina, and it was at a dance during Christmas vacation when she was only 16 that she met George Bush, a senior at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. They became engaged a year and a half later, just before he went off to war as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot. By the time George returned on leave, Barbara had dropped out of Smith College. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they were married.
After the war, George graduated from Yale, and they set out for Texas to start their lives together. Six children were born to them: George, Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Meanwhile, George built a business in the oil industry. With Texas as home base, he then turned to politics and public service, serving as a member of Congress, U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and later as Vice President. In those 44 years of marriage, Mrs. Bush managed 29 moves of the family.
When her husband was away, she became the family linchpin, providing everything from discipline to carpools. The death of their daughter Robin from leukemia when she was not quite four left George and Barbara Bush with a lifelong compassion. She says, "Because of Robin, George and I love every living human more."
Barbara Bush was always an asset to her husband during his campaigns for public office. Her friendly, forthright manner won her high marks from the voters and the press. As wife of the Vice President, she selected the promotion of literacy as her special cause. As First Lady, she called working for a more literate America the "most important issue we have." Involved with many organizations devoted to this cause, she became Honorary Chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. A strong advocate of volunteerism, Mrs. Bush helped many causes--including the homeless, AIDS, the elderly, and school volunteer programs.
Today Barbara Bush lives in a home she and her husband built in Houston, Texas, where she enjoys being part of the community. Their children and grandchildren visit them often in Houston and at the family summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. Devoted to her family, Mrs. Bush still finds time to work on an autobiography, serve on the Boards of AmeriCares and the Mayo Clinic, and continue her prominent role in the Barbara Bush Foundation.
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Laura Bush
White House Years, 2001 - Present
Laura Welch Bush shares America's concerns about the education of our children. Through her national initiative called Ready to Read, Ready to Learn, she stresses that America's children can't wait to read. In fact, they should have a book and an adult to read with long before they start school.
She urges more Americans to become teachers; discusses preparing young children for learning and school; and wants parents and other adults to have important information on child rearing and cognitive development.
On September 8, 2001, Mrs. Bush launched the first National Book Festival, which featured authors from across the nation and was attended by 30,000 people. Building on the success of the first festival, Mrs. Bush hosted the second annual National Book Festival on October 12, 2002. Seventy award-winning authors, illustrators and storytellers participated in the event which was attended by 45,000 people. Mrs. Ludmila Putina, wife of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, traveled to America to attend the festival.
Since the tragedy of September 11, Mrs. Bush has focused her energy on helping our nation, especially children, through the healing process. She encourages Americans to spend more time together as families and support the teachers who take care of their children every day in school.
Mrs. Bush joined a worldwide effort to stop the Taliban's oppression of women and children in Afghanistan. In November 2001, Mrs. Bush became the first First Lady in history to record a full presidential radio address, speaking out on the plight of women and children under the oppressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In May 2002, Mrs. Bush addressed the people of Afghanistan through Radio Liberty in Prague, the capitol of the Czech Republic.
In her speeches and public appearances, she expresses what many Americans believe: that every human being should be treated with dignity; and that no child should be left behind in school, or in life.
Mrs. Bush is also interested in women's health issues - particularly heart disease and breast cancer awareness. In Texas, she worked with the Governor's Spouse Program of the National Governors Association to promote women's health issues. She worked to establish Adopt-A-Caseworker programs and Rainbow Rooms throughout Texas. Rainbow rooms provide abused and neglected children with basic necessities such as clothing and diapers.
Her love of education and reading began in her youngest years and guided her to a career as a Texas public school teacher and librarian.
She attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1968. After college, she worked as a teacher at Longfellow Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District until 1969 and then moved to Houston, Texas, where she taught at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District until 1972.
Later, she enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin and earned a Master of Library Science degree in 1973. Afterward, she worked at the Houston Public Library, Kashmere Gardens Branch until she moved back to Austin in 1974.
She worked as a librarian at Dawson Elementary School until 1977, when she met George Walker Bush at the home of mutual friends. They married in November 1977 and made their home in Midland. In 1981, George and Laura Bush became the proud parents of twin girls, who are named Barbara and Jenna, after their grandmothers.
Today she brings her experienced viewpoints, her love of children and her interest in education to a much broader audience as the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.
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