American First Lady, the wife of George W. Bush, who was inaugurated as a U.S. President on January 20, 2001. Distinctly low-key with little interest in designer clothes or high society pretensions, Laura has strong opinions nonetheless. While she has seemed to follow the lead of her mother-in-law, Barbara, in that family comes first, she has worked hard on behalf of her favorite subjects, literacy and learning, and is a supporter of women’s rights to choose.
Raised in a West Texas oil town by a homebuilder and a bookkeeper, Laura was an only child who experienced a normal small-town upbringing. She showed an early interest in books and an orderly nature. As a teen, she played bridge and loved the Beatles. However her life was irrevocably changed when, on the evening of November 6, 1963, just two days after her 17th birthday, she suffered a horrific trauma while she was driving her car. She didn’t see a stop sign and reportedly smashed into another car, whose driver, a classmate, suffered a broken neck and died on the scene. She was not cited but she took it hard and remains unable to talk about the incident except in general terms: “It makes me have more of a perspective on life.”
Laura earned her master’s in library science in 1973. She had been to school with George W. Bush in the seventh grade and they connected in 1977. Three months later, in November 1977, they married. He was in the oil business at the time and they lived in a garage apartment. When their twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara were born, Laura was admitted to the hospital seven weeks before her due-date because of toxemia. A C-section was scheduled two weeks later and the girls were born on November 25, 1981, “close to 10:00 AM,” Dallas, TX. Laura was a hands-on, caring mom.
A voracious reader, an intelligent woman, a gracious First Lady and a quiet force, she is credited with her husband’s decision to give up alcohol. When she expresses a view that disagrees with one of her husband’s policies, she is quick to add that he is a strong and compassionate leader. As mistress of the White House, Laura is in charge of large staff and a domain of some 150 rooms. She maintains a casual air, and entertaining is more apt to include Tex-Mex rather than Parisian cuisine. Eloquent on the issues of education, she is quiet about herself. Her reticence is accompanied by a smile that has made her popular among most Americans. Bush is an effective campaigner for her husband and inspires respect even from her husband’s detractors.
In December 2006 she revealed that the previous month she had had a squamous cell carcinoma removed from her right shin.
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