Laura Bush

Bush met George W. Bush in 1977 at a mutual friend’s backyard barbecue party. They started dating each other and in the same year the couple got married in the First United Methodist Church in Midland, Texas.

She tried to conceive for many years before her twin daughters Barbara and Jenna were born in 1981. Laura Bush is the only First Lady in the American History who gave birth to twins.

Laura Bush was born in Midlands, Texas, to Harold Welch and Jenna Louise Hawkins Welch. Her father was a real estate developer and her mother was a bookkeeper for her husband’s business.

She went to the James Brownie Elementary School, San Jacinto Junior High School and Robert E. Lee High School in Midland. She later on attended the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree.

After graduating from the university, Laura started her career as a second grade school teacher at Longfellow Elementary School in the Dallas Independent School District and later on taught at the John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Houston.

In 1973, Laura earned a Masters degree in Library Science from the University of Texas, after which she started working at the Houston Public Library. In the following year, she went to work at the Austin Independent School District.

Bush became the First Lady of Texas after George Bush was elected as the Governor of Texas in 1995. She used her position to work for causes that she truly believed in—state funding for literacy, breast cancer awareness, etc.

In 2000, her husband started campaigning for the U.S. presidency and she supported him wholeheartedly. She made her first national speech at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

George bush went on to win the presidential elections in 2000 and Laura decided to keep a low profile as the First Lady but the 9/11 terrorist attacks compelled her to join her husband in reassuring the nation.

After the attacks, Laura worked on addressing the various aftermath issues, especially the parent’s trepidation over how the violence of the attacks had affected their children. She talked about the ways family members can comfort each other.

Her first term as the First Lady was involved in working towards issues like, child development, higher teachers’ salaries, better training for Head Start programs. She started a national scheme—‘Ready to Read Ready to Learn’.

Laura’s most prominent work is considered to be the causes she worked for in the position of the First Lady. She promoted issues related to children, women’s health, gender equality and endorsed literacy throughout the nation.