laura

Early life

Laura Lane Welch was born in Midland, Texas, the only child of Harold Bruce Welch (1912–1995) and Jenna Louise Hawkins (born 1919). The members of her family were conservative Democrats, as were the majority of people in Texas at that time. She grew up in Midland and attended San Jacinto Junior High School with her future husband (whom she did not know at the time). She graduated from Midland's Robert E. Lee High School in 1964. The school opened in the fall of 1961, when she was a sophomore, and her first year of high school was been spent at Midland High School. Her schoolmates at Robert E. Lee included General Tommy Franks, who was a year ahead of her, and the actor Tommy Lee Jones, who was a year behind her.

In 1963 Laura Bush was involved in a fatal car accident when she ran a stop sign and crashed into another car, killing her boyfriend Michael Dutton Douglas who was driving the other car. According to the two-page accident report released by the city of Midland, neither driver was drinking and no charges were filed. ^[1]

College years, teacher, librarian

Welch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1968 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. After graduating, she became a school teacher at Longfellow Elementary School in Dallas Independent School District until 1969. She then taught for three years at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, a Houston Independent School District school in Houston, until 1972.

She then earned a Master of Science degree in Library Science in 1973 from the University of Texas at Austin. After that, she worked as a librarian at the Kashmere Gardens Branch at the Houston Public Library until 1974, when she moved back to Austin. She was a librarian at an Austin Independent School District school, Dawson Elementary School, until 1977.

Marriage and family

Laura Welch met George W. Bush in 1977 at a backyard barbecue at the home of mutual friends. After a three-month courtship, she married him on November 5 of that year at the First United Methodist Church in Midland, the same church that she had been baptized in. ^[2]

In 1981, she gave birth to twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. The twins graduated from high school in 2000 and from Yale University and the University of Texas at Austin in 2004.

During her years raising her children, Laura Bush served as a volunteer in a number of organizations, including Friends of the Midland Public Library, the executive board of the Junior League of Midland, the Friends of Dallas Public Library Board Executive Committee, the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) at Preston Hollow Elementary School, and the Community Partners Board of Child Protective Services. ^[3]

Laura Bush is credited with influencing the maturation of her husband in the 1980s and with being one of the factors in his decision to stop drinking alcohol in 1986. ^[4]

Several times a year, Bush and her husband travel to their sprawling family estate, the Bush Compound better known as Walker's point. Located in Kennebunkport, Maine, the compound is where Bush family gatherings have been held for nearly 100 years.

First Lady of Texas

Laura Bush became the First Lady of Texas when her husband was elected as the Governor of Texas and served as first lady of that state from 1995 to 2000.

She worked for women's and children's causes, establishing the Adopt-a-Caseworker Program and the Rainbow Room program. She also focused on literacy and libraries, and established the First Lady's Family Literacy Initiative, which encouraged families to read together. ^[5] During her years in the Governor's Mansion, she did not hold a single formal event. ^[6]

After the outcome of the 2000 Presidential Election was finally resolved in December 2000, her husband resigned as Texas Governor to prepare for his inauguration as President of the United States in January 2001; Bush then became the First Lady of the United States.

First Lady of the United States

First term

As First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush has championed education causes and women's health issues, and launched the first National Book Festival.

Bush has taken a decidedly less prominent role in policy-making than some of her predecessors. Especially notable has been the contrast with her immediate predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Opponents of the Clintons have found Laura Bush to be a welcome return to the traditional role of the First Lady, while proponents of Hillary Clinton have felt that Laura Bush — despite being, after Clinton, only the second First Lady to hold a post-graduate degree — has failed to advance the First Lady role in what they would see as a modern direction.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush took an interest in mitigating the emotional effects of the attacks on children, which were disturbing, particularly as the images were repeatedly replayed on television. Many schools closed early, especially those with children whose parents worked in Washington, D.C. or New York City. When asked for her thoughts on the attacks, she responded with a very strong warning to parents: don't let your children see the pictures over and over, especially young children, but even elementary school-aged children shouldn't be watching it all the time. ^[7] She gave the warning, based on how children reacted when watching television coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. She also composed open letters which she distributed through state education officials. A "Dear Students" letter went to middle and high school students ^[8], while elementary school students got one saying, "Dear Children". ^[9]

In November 2001, she became the first person other than a president to deliver the weekly presidential radio address. She used the opportunity to discuss the plight of women in Afghanistan during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, saying, "The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the president." [18] In May 2002, she made a speech to the people of Afghanistan through Radio Liberty, a radio station in Prague, Czech Republic.

Her Secret Service codename was reported to be "Tempo" (the Secret Service changes codenames as soon as they become public knowledge).

Laura Bush was named the second most powerful woman in the United States and the fourth most powerful in the world by Forbes magazine in 2004. ^[10]

Second term

During the January 2005 second inauguration ceremonies for her husband, Laura Bush was praised by People magazine and others for her elegance and better use of fashion. ^[11] One of the designers she has used is Scaasi.^[12] While her First Lady approval ratings remained high (some polls said 85% approval) as her husband's approval ratings slid she began to take a stronger role in his second term. Among her recent high-profile projects is an initiative designed to encourage patriotism in American schools entitled National Anthem Project.

In April 2005, Bush joked about her husband at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. She called her husband "Mr. Excitement" and said she told him that if he wanted to "end tyranny in the world" he would have to stay up later. She even used the old joke that he "tried to milk a horse ... and what's worse it was a male horse." She also jokingly compared mother-in-law Barbara Bush to "Don Corleone."^[13]

In May 2005, as Bush traveled through the Middle East, she was heckled by some bystanders in Jerusalem, appeared on Egypt's version of Sesame Street, endorsed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's upcoming election plans, and in Jordan said that women should have the right to "speak and vote and worship freely." In Jerusalem, Bush visited the Dome Of the Rock mosque. She removed her shoes and walked barefoot in the mosque, which is a sign of respect in Islamic culture. That same month Lynne Cheney said on Larry King Live that Mrs. Bush should run for President in 2008.^[14] Dick Cheney concurred, leading to some press musings of a Laura Bush/Hillary Clinton matchup.

On July 12, 2005 while in South Africa on an AIDS mission, Bush suggested her husband replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor with another woman. Her husband seemed surprised when reporters asked him about her quote, but said he couldn't wait to hear her advice. On October 2, during a private dinner at the White House with Laura, President Bush asked Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor. ^[15] Later that month, after Miers had faced intense criticism, Bush questioned whether the charges were sexist in nature ^[16].

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, speaking at a press conference from a relief center in Lafayette on September 2, 2005, Laura Bush was asked about the fact that most of the people stuck in New Orleans were poor and black. The First Lady said that while the poor are always the main victims of natural disasters, there is nothing that can be done about it. "This is what happens when there's a natural disaster of this scope," Mrs. Bush said. "The poorer people are usually in the neighborhoods that are the lowest or the most exposed or the most vulnerable. Their housing is the most vulnerable to natural disaster. And that is just always what happens." ^[17]

While appearing on Fox News Sunday on May 14, 2006, Mrs. Bush responded to a question concerning the Federal Marriage Amendment by calling for elected leaders not to politicize same-sex marriage, "I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue... a lot of sensitivity."^[18] This comes after the Republican National Committee during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election sent fliers to voters in the states of Arkansas and Virginia, which depicted the Holy Bible with the phrase "banned" imposed over it and a man proposing to another man with the phrase "allowed." At the time the mailings were sent out the Log Cabin Republicans characterized them as a blanket attack on gay families for implying that gay-rights organizations want to ban the Bible. ^[19]

Although approval polls on her husband have dropped steadily for much of his presidency, Mrs. Bush has said, "I don't really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me," she said. ^[20]

Awards and honors

• In October 2002, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity honored Laura Bush in recognition of her life-long commitment to education. [19]
• In April 2005, the American Library Association honored Laura Bush for her years of support to America's libraries and librarians. [20]
• In March 2006, Laura Bush received an award in honor of her dedication to help improve the living conditions and education of children around the world, from the Kuwait-American Foundation. [21]
• Laura Bush Elementary School in Houston, Texas [22] (part of the Pasadena ISD), which will open in fall 2006, is named after Bush.

Further reading

• Felix, Antonia. Laura: America's First Lady, First Mother. The first biography on Laura Bush. ISBN 1-58062-659-9
• Gerhart, Ann. The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush. A biography. ISBN 0-7432-4383-8
• Gormley, Beatrice. Laura Bush: America's First Lady. A biography. ISBN 0-689-85366-1
• Kelley, Kitty. The Family : The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. A portrait of the world's most powerful dynasty. ISBN 0-385-50324-5
• Kessler, Ronald. Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady. A biography. ISBN 0-385-51621-5
• Kushner, Tony. Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy A play about Laura Bush, wrestling with her morality. (Tony Kushner later added an extra scene)
• Montgomery, Leslie. Were It Not For Grace: Stories From Women After God's Own Heart; Featuring Condoleezza Rice, First Lady Laura Bush, Beth Moore & Others. Laura Bush share her story about how God has had his hand on her life. ISBN 0-8054-3178-0

References

External links

• Official White House profile
• "The book on Laura Bush" by Dennis B. Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• "A Laura Bush we don't know" by Eugene Robinson, San Francisco Chronicle
• Laura Bush at NNDB
• Laura Bush at the Internet Movie Database