things going on in the outside world, things that people were saying about them. and it was a shield and it was an inner club that they used this wit and humor. and she was, in particular, the leader of that. and being able to break down awkward or uncomfortable moments by laughing through those tears. it came through very vividly all the time. absolutely. franklin roosevelt had a saying. he said some people are the masters of the science of personal human relationships. the bushes are loved by everybody because they wrote thank you notes. they hugged people. they shared humor with everybody. i don t know one person who knew them that wasn t enamored with them and their sense of hospitality was so large, both in maine and in texas, that this outpouring we re experiencing this week is very real. america loved barbara bush. and she truly was, perhaps, the most popular first lady of
fashion. but she always had a little sense of humor about that, especially this picture. watch this. you see the keds. right. she was very self depricating. i don t following nancy regul reagan, who was this famously fashionable first lady, wearing designer clothes and her signature red, i don t think barbara bush cared as much about fashion. she famously joked about wearing the three strands, kenneth j. lane fake pearl necklace to cover the wrinkles on her neck and would joke about not being a size 2. she really was a relatable grandmother-like figure. there was so much depth to her. she was a tireless campaigner for her husband. one thing that was interesting was that when he was vice president, she told his chief of staff, i will do anything you ask of me as long as i can finish the day where my husband is. they had money. they had a lot of money. she was, what, pretty frugal?
wanted to know, what was i working on, where was i going? what was i doing? what my thoughts were on current topics. but then she would always end the conversation with now when are you going to have a family? when are you going to start a family with your husband? and she enjoyed having that balance in her world. i think there was also real bond between barbara bush and the other first ladies who came before her. she was very close with betty ford and at the ford library you can see the great letters between them. she wrote a beautiful note to pat nixon saying whenever i walk by your portrait in the white house i m reminded of your dignity. i would love to have you come with your grandchildren for lunch. always reaching out to them. in the way there is a fraternity of ex-presidents, there is a sorority it sounds diminutive but i mean it in the nicest way possible with the first ladies. the obamas, the clintons. but this started long ago. it certainly did. including those famou
they loved to tease each other. she and 41 were constantly laughing and often times it was an inside joke between the two of them. one of my favorite memories was not long after she had a heart valve replacement surgery and they actually used a pig valve to that they put in mrs. bush, and for the next few weeks any time 41 would walk in the room or see her, he would start snorting or oinking at her to remind her she had this pig valve. that sense of humor, kate, it helped them get through difficult times as well. it did. a lot of the butlers and maids were very close to the bushes. there were great stories where she loved being first lady and would come down to the basement in the white house with her robe, ready to go for a swim and check in on the cookie man. one time she left for a foreign trip and came back and the engine engineers were going to wash the
saying i know you all didn t want me. you wanted alition walker the color purple. instead you got the woman known for one thing, the color of her hair. so she made jokes about her jewelry and her clothes and the way she wasn t jackie kennedy. that came through to you as well? absolutely. she had a great way of using self depricating humor to disarm people. she was speaking to a group of plastic surgeons and she was fearful that everybody in the room were going to rush the stage to get their hands on her. she told the secret service under no circumstances were the plastic surgeons allowed to touch her. you had some memories of that sense of humor. yeah. it could be cutting, too, in a fun way. there was one reporter who told me that he had written a story in 92 about bush s defeat, re-election defeat and he saw barbara bush and he had known them since the 1960s, houston