Barbara Bush

by Colleen

Barbara Bush is another woman of distinction. What I like about her is her stand on literacy. Not only does she talk the talk, she walks the walk when it comes to getting down and reading (in most cases to children). Even during Christmas time, there's a special radio program that she narrates and has gobs of stories she or some other well known person reads from. She has that "grandmotherly" charm and is just an overall laid back person even during her prestiguous years as the First Lady.

From the George Bush Presidential Library:

Born Barbara Pierce on June 8, 1925, Mrs. Bush grew up in Rye, New York, where she met and later married George Herbert Walker Bush on January 6, 1945. The Bush's first daughter, Robin, died in 1953 after fighting Leukemia, but today the family includes four sons (George W., Jeb, Marvin and Neil); one daughter (Dorothy); four daughters-in-law; one son-in-law; and 14 grandchildren.

Throughout the years in public life, Mrs. Bush volunteered in and supported hundreds of charity and humanitarian causes. Today, she continues her service as Americares ambassador-at-large; Mayo Clinic Foundation board member; and general supporter of various organizations, including the Leukemia Society of America, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Boys & Girls Club of America.

Her number one cause, however, is family literacy. She believes, and so do the experts, that if more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems plaguing our society today. In 1989, she helped develop the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy whose mission is to support the development of family literacy programs; break the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy; and establish literacy as a value in every American family. She currently serves as honorary chair of the Foundation and hosts its annual fundraiser, "A Celebration of Reading," and regularly donates a portion of her proceeds to the foundation's causes.

Her involvement in the literacy cause does not end with her foundation. She regularly undertakes a myriad of projects and a rigorous appearance schedule designed to emphasize reading as a part of daily family life. By visiting literacy programs across the country -- in schools, housing projects, organizations and businesses -- she witnesses, first hand, the powerful impact reading has on those who were previously illiterate.

She regularly appeared on "Mrs. Bush's Story Time," a national radio program that stresses the importance of reading aloud to children and authored two books, C. Fred's Story and the best-selling "Millie's Book," whose profits benefited the literacy cause. Most recently, she wrote "Barbara Bush: A Memoir," her best-selling autobiography emphasizing the importance of family, faith, and friends.