Former first lady Barbara Bush, an advocate for early and adult literacy during her time in the White House and afterward, died last week at the age of 92.
The wife of President George H.W. Bush and the mother of President George W. Bush, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and three other children, Bush used the bully pulpit of her office as first lady to advance the issue on behalf of children and their parents.
In 1989, as first lady, she started the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Over the past 29 years, the organization has helped provide more than $110 million to create or expand family-literacy programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the nonprofit’s website.
And in the 1990s, Mrs. Bush helped champion her husband’s signature education initiative, America 2000, the national strategy to move the country toward the six education goals.
