Barbara Pierce Bush Biography

Barbara Pierce Bush

After growing up in Rye, New York, Barbara Pierce attended the Ashley Hall school in South Carolina. It was at a school dance that she met George Bush, then a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In 1945, Barbara, who had dropped out of Smith College, married Bush, who was then on leave from his job as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot. After Bush graduated from Yale, they moved to Texas where he built an oil business. They had six children, George, Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Robin died of leukemia when she was nearly four. Their Jeb became governor of Florida, while George went on to become Texas governor and president of the United States. When her husband was in office, Barbara championed volunteerism and literacy. She currently serves as honorary chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She also helped the homeless, the elderly, AIDS patients, and supported school volunteer programs.