Barbara Bush, a Woman of ‘Exceptional Faith,’ Dies

Former First Lady Barbara Bush has died, according to a Bush family spokesperson. She was 92

The Bush office announced Barbara was in failing health earlier this month, and she decided to not seek any further treatment.

“Following a recent series of hospitalizations, and after consulting her family and doctors, Mrs. Bush, now age 92, has decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care. She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving,” according to the Bush office statement.

“It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself—thanks to her abiding faith—but for others. She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving,” the statement continued.

A person close to the family told The Washington Post Barbara Bush has a lung disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure.

Of her decreasing health, Barbara once joked: “I have had great medical care and more operations than you would believe. I’m not sure God will recognize me; I have so many new body parts!”

Barbara was born on June 8, 1925, in New York City to Marvin and Pauline Robinson Pierce. She was obsessed with reading, which her father, a magazine publisher, encouraged.

She met her husband, former President George H. W. Bush when she was just 16 years old.

According to the National First Ladies Library:

At a 1941 Christmas dance, when she was only 16 years old, she met George Herbert Walker Bush, her future husband, who was then a senior at the boarding school Phillips Academy Andover. There was an immediate mutual attraction and they began writing to each other. She went as his date to his senior prom. Bush completed pilot training by 1943, becoming the youngest pilot then in the navy. The same year Barbara Bush graduated from Ashley Hall and entered Smith College. Bush named his bomber plane “Barbara” after her. The early forties were lively and active years for Barbara Bush. She went to work during the summers, first at a Lord & Taylor department store in Greenwich, Connecticut, then a nuts and bolts factory that provided supplies for the U.S. war effort. She made a cross-country train trip with the German nurse of her baby niece because the woman feared being assumed as a Nazi spy. In California, she tried surfing. When she began Smith College, Barbara Bush wrote that it opened her perceptions about the world: it was the first racially integrated school she attended. She also made the freshman soccer team and served as captain.

One and a half years after their meeting, Barbara Pierce and George Bush became engaged, just before Bush went off to war during World War II as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot, in which capacity he would fly 58 combat missions. She later admitted that her attention was not on academics but on her fiancé: he was nearly killed after being shot down on September 2, 1944. When he returned on leave, Barbara dropped out of college in Northampton, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they married.

The couple had six children: George W.; Robin, who died at age 3 from leukemia; Jeb; Neil; Marvin and Dorothy (Doro).

The Bush family rapidly grew into a political dynasty. H.W. was president 1989-1993, and the couple’s son George W. was elected president in 2000. Jeb served as the Florida governor and was a candidate in the 2016 Republican primary election.

Republican Barbara was a strong Christian who was known for her faith on both sides of the aisle.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted that Bush “is a comfort to her friends & family teaching us all how to live full of faith, love & humor.”

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, sent prayers on Twitter “for a woman of great faith, great strength, and an unwavering love of country.”

In a 2013 interview, Barbara told reporters: “I have no fear of death, which is a huge comfort because we’re getting darn close. I don’t have a fear of death for my precious George, or for myself, because I know that there is a great God, and I’m not worried.”

Family friend and former pastor Bonnie Steinroeder previously told People the couple were “so happy together and so committed to each other. They were always so kind to one another. They’ve been role models in a lot of ways. … I am sure it is devastating for him, but I will say they are people of exceptional faith.”