‘Barbara Bush was the first lady of the greatest generation’: Presidential historian
April 22, 2018 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Barbara Bush was remembered at her funeral Saturday as a woman who represented the best of the World War II generation.
“Barbara Bush was the first lady of ‘the greatest generation,’” presidential historian Jon Meacham, a friend of the Bush family, said in a eulogy at the service in Texas that drew signatories from across the nation and around the world.
Meacham recalled the snowy-haired former first lady’s “long and consequential life,” not least her promotion of literacy and her devilish sense of humor.
“She was candid and comforting,” Meacham said, adding that she “kept everything and everyone together.”
Some 1,500 filled St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston for Saturday’s service. Barbara Bush, who died on Tuesday at the age of 92, had requested in her last wishes a modest funeral at the Gothic-style cathedral, where she and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, were devoted members for decades.
Barbara Bush’s casket arrived Friday at St. Martin’s, the nation’s largest Episcopal church, where she lay in repose as the public was invited to pay respects from noon to midnight, according to the Geo. H. Lewis Sons Funeral Home in Houston.
The Rev. Russell Levenson Jr. and the Rev. Dr. Peter Cheney are co-officiants of Saturday’s service, which began at 11 a.m. local time. Barbara Bush’s son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will deliver a eulogy along with her longtime friend, Susan Baker, and historian Jon Meacham, according to a statement from the Bush family.
Four of the five living ex-presidents are attending Saturday’s funeral service, including former President Barack Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, as well as former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton. The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea Clinton, is also in attendance.
Following the service, a funeral procession will bring Barbara Bush’s casket to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum near Texas AM University in College Station for a private service, where she will be buried in a family plot beside her daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of 3 in 1953. The Texas AM Corps of Cadets are expected to line Barbara Bush Avenue outside the library to pay tribute to the former first lady.
First lady Melania Trump is attending Saturday’s service “on behalf of the first family,” White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement. “To avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service, President Trump will not attend.”
Similarly, in 2016, then-President Obama did not attend the funeral of former first lady Nancy Reagan, while his wife did. Sitting presidents have rarely in recent decades gone to the funerals of former first ladies, according to FactCheck.org, a project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia.
Trump, who’s at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida for the weekend, extended his “thoughts and prayers” to the Bush family via Twitter and said he planned to watch Barbara Bush’s funeral service from the “Southern White House.”
Heading to the Southern White House to watch the Funeral Service of Barbara Bush. First Lady Melania has arrived in Houston to pay our respects. Will be a beautiful day!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
Barbara Bush served as first lady from 1989 to 1993. She died shortly after deciding to forgo further medical treatments for her failing health.
While delivering a eulogy at Saturday’s service, Meachum recalled a recent moment when Barbara Bush was in the hospital. She asked her doctor if he’d like to know why her eldest child, former President George W. Bush, “turned out the way he did,” according to the presidential historian.
“And then she announced, ‘I smoke and drank while I was pregnant,’” Meachum said amid loud laughter from the crowd of mourners inside St. Martin’s Episcopal.
Former President George H.W. Bush is “broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara, his wife of 73 years,” according to Jean Becker, chief of staff at the 93-year-old former president’s office.
“He held her hand all day today and was at her side when she left this good earth,” Becker said in a statement.
Former President George W. Bush described his mother as a “fabulous first lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions.”
“To us, she was so much more,” he said in a statement after her death. “Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end. I’m a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. Our family will miss her dearly.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
