talking about how do we help people in despair. the death opened up her heart in a way that never closed. such a wonderful, wonderful woman, indeed. up next, we ll take a look at the lighter side of the former first lady barbara bush as cnn s special coverage of her funeral continues. i have type 2 diabetes.
son or daughter or family member that gets in any kind of trouble. she s been a passionate advocate for literacy. my mom is amazing. i think the reasons that my cousins and i have kind of turned out to be productive citizens and i ve never taken the fact that we were grandkids of the president for granted is because of barbara bush. reporter: children, grandchildren and great grandchildren all part of the life and legacy of barbara pierce bush. the one request i have is that they stay loving siblings and so far, so good. and i ll be look iing down, so behave yourself. let s bring in our special correspondent jamie gangel, joining us on the phone. you re already inside st. maarten s church in houston for the funeral. we know that president bush spent yesterday greeting people at the viewing. what was it like for him? reporter: it really was a
he was superman. still is. and devoted. you can criticize me, but don t criticize my husband, or you re dead. fiercely protective of her husband, but in a way that avoided the pitfalls of some other first ladies who have seemed overly intrusive. reporter: his not-so-secret secret weapon. she had a foot with the family and a foot in his career. this idea that she was not politically involved is not true. she was there. barbara was someone who could tell george what she thought. and she would. just like she could tell everybody what she thought. and she would. i m not sure that my grandfather would have obtained nearly as many accolades as he did, but for my grandmother. reporter: critical political partner? an essential political partner. reporter: together for more than 70 years, the bushes were the longest married couple in
child by a couple will push them apart, but in this case, it brought them together. and george w. writes about that in his book, 41. it s very moving. you have to be moved by these stories. no question about it. the bushes were married in 1945 and bush saw a lot of death in world war ii. to start this post war, getting back to normal and having a little girl die at 3 from leukemia, it s been i think it made barbara bush realize that family is everything and it also made her very interested in helping people that were sick. i teach at the university in houston and barbara bush is everywhere with md anderson, heart institute, methodist hospital, constantly trying to be a healing agent. and when the big hurricane harvey hit, she was with players from eastern texas nfl team
[ cheers and applause ] . i want you to watch me all week. and remember. you may never see it again. how did her fashion, kate, reflect her values? it s interesting, kate. another thing barbara bush did for fashion was bring back larger sized pant suits. designers really riffed off the way she was comfortable in casual pant suits and she reflected a modern american woman, older woman, someone comfortable in her size, as kate was saying, and in her skin. certainly those faux pearls set off a huge national trend. you can still buy those kenneth j. lane pearls on amazon, actually. her one sort of extravagance was the designer who designed her