"I married the first man I ever kissed. When I tell this to my children, they just about throw up," Barbara Bush once said.
Barbara was born June 8, 1925, to Pauline and Marvin Pierce. Her father later became president of McCall Corp. In the suburban town of Rye, N.Y., 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, Mass. 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 Jan. 6, 1945, they were married. She was just 19 years old. In 1948, the couple moved to Texas, where he went into the oil business.
She raised their five children almost single-handedly because her husband traveled frequently in the early years of their marriage. (A sixth child, Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush, died of leukemia in 1953 at age 3.)
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."
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. Photo: AP
Barbara Pierce Bush