BreakingBarbara Bush, wife and mother of US presidents, dead at 92

Former US first lady Barbara Bush – wife of ex-president George H.W. Bush and mother of ex-president George W. Bush – has died at the age of 92.

“A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at the age of 92,” said a statement from the office of her now widower George H.W. Bush. They were married for 73 years.

The snowy-haired Mrs Bush was one of only two US first ladies who was also the mother of a president. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams.

Mrs Bush’s plain-spoken manner and utter lack of pretence made her more popular at times than her husband. She brought a grandmotherly style to buttoned-down Washington, often appearing in her trademark fake pearl chokers and displaying no vanity about her white hair and wrinkles.

“What you see with me is what you get. I’m not running for president – George Bush is,” she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where her husband, then vice-president, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan.

She married George H.W. Bush in 1945. They had six children, including George W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and were married longer than any presidential couple in American history.