Barbara Bush

Name at birth: Barbara Pierce

Barbara Bush is the wife of president George Bush and the mother of president George W. Bush. She met the elder Bush as a teenager, and dropped out of Smith College to marry him on 6 January 1945 while he was on leave from his service as a World War II Navy pilot. The Bushes had six children: George W., Robin, John (also known as Jeb, later the governor of Florida), Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Robin died of leukemia in 1953. A popular First Lady, Bush was particularly interested in promoting literacy and later created her own private foundation devoted to the cause. She wrote the best-selling Millie's Book (1990), a story of life in the White House as told by the family dog, and the autobiographical Barbara Bush: A Memoir (1994).