2008 Woodie Awards
Home away from home
Touring the Bushes' College Station apartment
By: Chelsea Lankes
Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: News
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Students can see the former president and former first lady around the Texas A&M campus periodically. When the Bushes stay in College Station, they attend games and like to listen to scheduled speakers.
"We try to come every football game and then for speakers," Bush said. "So we would be up here maybe, not as much as we would like to be, but maybe four weekends in the fall. I hope it will be more. George likes to come up [here]; he teaches sometimes at the Bush school, and he loves the basketball games."
Bush's favorite place to spend time is the lake behind the Bush Library. "I love walking the dog by the lake."
However, she wishes to see more of the A&M campus.
"I haven't [seen] enough of the college itself and I feel very bad about that. I've [seen] the veterinarian small animal clinic. They have been wonderful to us, but I would like to go explore some of the courses and things."
Fostering literacy
Bush is an avid reader and one of her main crusades is family literacy. She turned her attention to the lack of literacy in the country while working as a volunteer in a hospital. When former President Bush campaigned for the Republican nomination in 1980, she considered what she could do for the country as well."I spent that summer jogging in the park thinking, 'Now what am I going to choose?' Even when nobody thought he had a chance - of course he didn't, he lost - but he won the next time," she said. "I wanted to do something that wouldn't cost the government a lot of money, but that will help more people. Working in a hospital is wonderful, but I wanted to help more people."
Thus began the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Bush described the development of her cause.
"I first started with adult literacy knowing that if more people could read, write and understand, so many of our problems would be solved - like teenage pregnancy, unemployment, drug use, all those things you worry about," she said. "Then I decided that was good, but it wasn't good enough. If a parent can't read or doesn't get involved in their child, very often that child falls by the wayside, so I started the family literacy."
Building a foundation
The foundation was established on March 6, 1989, and has accomplished much since. The foundation gave away more than 600 grants, mainly in Texas."It's very touching when you see that a mother or a father has learned to read. Maybe they read in another language, but often they didn't read at all. They're getting a job and realizing if their child grows up, they want them to go to college and be able to read so they get involved in the schools," she said.
To Bush, literacy is essential among the workforce in order to function on a competitive level with the rest of the world.
"It's very touching how you change lives. We have raised and given away over $30 million. People are very generous, and I think people know if your work force can't read, we're not going be able to compete in the world, and we do have to compete in the world. You have to have an educated workforce."
Her concerns as honorary chairwoman of the Barbara Bush Foundation were those of a mother of six children. Bush made sure reading was a large part of her children's lives as they grew up. Thereby, she instilled a passion for reading within them as adults.
"When they learned to read themselves, they did pretty well by themselves," she said. "But we read things like the Wizard of Oz. Just reading to them, and seeing you read is so important. Some of our children read more than others."
In replying to who reads more, she said, "It's hard to say, but I notice they are all deep in books now. George W. is loving history and reading a lot of history. Jeb, I don't know what he is reading, but he certainly is reading."
As for her own preferences in books, Bush likes mysteries and listens to books on tape while doing needlepoint.
"I've just finished an amazing book called Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. I wept through it. I thought it was the most extraordinary book, and I thought the mother, the wife, was just angelic. I have never been quite so touched by a book," she said.
If anyone with the opinion that books on tape is a step toward a more high-tech lifestyle for Bush, they would be wrong. She owns an iPod and likes more than classical music. She is a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber and others.
"I like country music, but I like classical, too. We go to sleep to classical every night and George changes [the music], but we go to sleep to music every night. I love musical comedies. I love classical music."
Accomplishing a great deal
Bush has accomplished a great deal in her extraordinary life as a wife, mother, grandmother and advocate of causes, including the homeless, AIDS, the elderly and school volunteer programs. However, she and former President Bush have set their sights on cancer and eliminating some of the avoidable agents of cancer."We are working very hard, George and I. We've gathered together this great group of cancer experts from pharmaceutical companies, great medical centers, from private sectors like the [Susan B.] Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer," she said.
More than 120 experts gathered together to share their medical knowledge in hopes of finding new solutions to an old enemy.
"And one of the things we've accomplished is we have made many, many places smoke free. Many states have started cancer programs of their own, so they're checking on their people and we're getting a network across the country."
The network forms a subsidiary that focuses on eliminating smoking in the workplace.
"We have something called the CEO round table. These are huge companies who have made their campuses cigarette free. If everybody gave up smoking in our country, one-third of the cancer would be eliminated. That's the most shocking thing, not to mention emphysema, heart attack, that's extra, but I mean, that's pretty gasping," she said.
Touring the accomodations
Along with a candid interview, Bush led student journalists through a personal tour of the Bush apartment above the Bush Library. Bush pointed out details that made a space resembling the White House seem more like home.The door to the president's office was that of a superhero's. Designed to blend into the wall, one would expect one of the books on the adjacent wall to pull out like a latch, opening the door to reveal a secret lair of presidential business. A quick glimpse into the office revealed a desk full of papers, then the door shut to prevent further exploration.
The bright and classic color palette of yellow couches, floral curtains, blues and reds, was in perfect position. Jenna Bush's recently published book, Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope, laid on the coffee table in the center of the room. Personal pictures of family - many outdated, Bush mentioned - gave the apartment an unpretentious air.
The kitchen was designed for catering and entertaining a large number of guests. The bedrooms were cozy and inviting. Having lived in the White House, a residence in Houston and a summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, the apartment still seemed like a home away from home.
Her self-proclaimed image of "everybody's grandmother" rings true for one of the most iconic women of the century. The down-to-earth manner with which she conducts herself puts most around her at ease. With a distinguished career in altruism, she continues in her role as not only former first lady and humanitarian, but as a woman focused on her family and living the life she loves.
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