She is secure also in the knowledge that their affection is mutual. "Every morning of our life the one who wakes up early goes downstairs, feeds the dog and brings the coffee up to bed," she says. "Then we watch the morning news and read the newspapers. Maybe a formula for a happy marriage is that you don't need to make a ritual out of it. You're just automatically thoughtful and sensitive about the other person." While other marriages have been riven by conflicting demands for self-realization, Barbara Bush is content in her role as a matriarch. Though she is a proud, strong-willed woman, she has never confused her role with that of her husband. She has criticized President Carter for inviting the First Lady to sit in on Cabinet meetings and has refused to be drawn into the bitter debates over abortion and the ERA. "People try to nail me on abortion," she says, "but I have never given my views on it because it is my husband who is running for Vice-President. I am not. I do have very strong views on abortion, but they are private. As for the ERA, of course I am for it, but I don't think it's a presidential issue. I have never marched for it and I won't, because in my list of priorities it's not at the top."
Born in New York City, the daughter of the president of the McCall Corp., Barbara Pierce grew up in suburban Rye. She attended public schools through eighth grade, then was enrolled at Ashley Hall, an exclusive girls' boarding school in Charleston, S.C. She met Bush, then a senior at Andover, during Christmas vacation when she was only 16. They were engaged by the time he joined the Navy just after his 18th birthday, and married 11 months later when she dropped out of Smith. Their first home was a one-room apartment in Wyandotte, Mich., near the Grosse lie Naval Air Station. "We learned the hard way," she says of her first grim experience of homemaking. "I ruined everything—and I mean everything. I shrank my whole trousseau. That was a weakness of my mother. She had a theory that if you could read, you could keep house."
Ultimately, Barbara chose as her role model Mrs. Prescott Bush, George's mother, who presides over the clan's summer compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. "She's been a great influence," says Barbara. "I had to decide early on as a daughter-in-law that you can't beat her, you have to sit back and enjoy her. When I was a new bride, she beat me in paddle tennis with her right hand, then with her left. She is an extraordinary woman. She brings out the best in us." Still, the younger Mrs. Bush takes pride in the fact that even before George made his fortune as a Texas oilman, their own independence was already established. "Our parents never had to subsidize us," she says firmly. "We have always lived on George's salary."
If Barbara relied on George to play breadwinner, he counted on her to bring up the kids. As evidence that she got the job done, son George, 34, is an independent oilman; Jeb, 27, and Neil, 25, have been working full-time in their father's campaigns; Marvin, 24, is a student at the University of Virginia; and Dorothy, 20, is at Boston College. Another daughter, Robin, died in 1953 at the age of 4 of leukemia. "When I took her to New York to the hospital, it just killed George," Barbara recalls. "But when she died, he was extraordinarily strong. I couldn't put my right foot in front of my left, but George was really good about sharing the grief. And when it was all over he was marvelous. He got me laughing again."
On the political battleground, too, the Bushes' partnership has proved to be durable. A vigorous campaigner, Barbara worked tirelessly for George in his unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Then at the GOP convention she moved quickly to squelch reports of bad blood between her and Nancy Reagan. "We talked about it," says Barbara. "I said, 'I know you don't hate me, and I don't hate you. I hope you don't believe those terrible rumors.' " Later, demonstrating that her own willingness to play No. 2 is at least equal to that of her husband, she turned down a CBS request for her vital statistics. "Can't you see it?" she later asked whimsically. "Nancy Reagan, 5'2"; Barbara Bush, 5'8". I'm not going to play that game."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
