Laura Bush Totally Explained

Everything about Laura Bush totally explained

Laura Lane Welch Bush (born November 4, 1946) is the wife of the forty-third and current President of the United States George W. Bush and current First Lady of the United States.
Bush was born Laura Welch in Midland, Texas. She has held a love for books and reading since childhood, and her life and education have reflected that interest. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1968 with a Bachelor's degree in education, and soon took a job as a second grade school teacher. After attaining her Master's degree in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin, she was employed as a librarian. She met George Walker Bush in 1977 and they were married later that year; the couple has twin daughters. Bush's political involvement began with her marriage to Bush. She campaigned in his unsuccessful 1978 run for the United States Congress, and later his successful Texas gubernatorial campaign. As First Lady of Texas, Bush implemented many intiatives focused on health, education, and literacy. In 1999, she aided her husband in campaigning for the presidency of the United States in a number of ways, most notably delivering a keynote address at the 2000 Republican National Convention; this gained her national attention. George Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore in a closely contested election, making Laura first lady.
In her current position, Laura Bush has become involved in topics with both national and global concern. She continued advancing her trademark interests in education and literacy by establishing the annual National Book Festival in 2001. She has become a leader in her husband's Helping America's Youth initiative by speaking to children and community organizers about the negative effects of drugs and alcohol. She has also advanced the causes of women through The Heart Truth and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Early life and career

Laura Lane Welch was born in Midland, Texas, as the only child of Harold Welch (1912–1995) and Jenna Louise Hawkins Welch (born 1919). Her father was a home builder and later sucessful real estate developer while her mother worked as the bookkeeper for her father's business. She graduated from Lee in 1964 and went on to attend Southern Methodist University in Dallas where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. According to Bush's spokesperson, "It was a very tragic accident that deeply affected the families and was very painful for all involved, including the community at large. To this day, Mrs. Bush remains unable to talk about it." She then taught for three years at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, a Houston Independent School District school in Houston, until 1972.
In 1973, Welch attained a Master of Science degree in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Marriage and family

Laura met George W. Bush in 1977 at a backyard barbecue at the home of mutual friends John and Jan O'Neill. at the First United Methodist Church in Midland, the same church in which she'd been baptized. The couple didn't have a honeymoon. The year after their marriage, the couple began campaigning for George W. Bush's 1978 Congressional candidacy. After narrowly winning the primary, he lost the general election. She is also credited with possessing a stabilizing affect on his private life.
   Though during her years in the Governor's Mansion, she didn't hold a single formal event, Laura worked for women's and children's causes including health, education, and literacy. Bush further established "Rainbow Rooms" across the state, in an effort to provide emergency services for neglected or abused children. Her major initiatives inlcude education and women's health. She also focused on early child development. The following day, Laura composed open letters to America's families, focusing on elementary and middle school students, which she distributed through state education officials. She took an interest in mitigating the emotional effects of the attacks on children, particularly the disturbing images repeatedly replayed on television. On the one-year anniversary, she encourged parents to instead read to their children, and perhaps light a candle in memoriam, saying, "Don't let your children see the images, especially on September 11, when you know it'll probably be on television again and again — the plane hitting the building or the buildings falling." The conference, held in Spetember 2006, encouraged a constant effort to promote literacy and highlighted many successful literacy programs. Bush coordinated this as a result of her many trips abroad where she witnessed how literacy benefitted children in poorer nations. It is an organization established by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to raise awareness about heart disease in women, and how to prevent the condition. She serves in the honorary position of ambassador for the program She has participated in fashion shows displaying red dresses worn on celebrities as well.
   Laura's mother, Jenna Welch, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 78. She endured surgery and currently has no further signs of cancer. Laura has become a breast cancer activist on her mother's behalf through her involvement in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She applauded the foundation's efforts in eliminating the embarassment of cancer and said, "A few short years ago, a diagnosis of breast cancer left little hope of recovery. But thanks to the work of the Komen Foundation... more women and men are beating breast cancer and beating the odds."
   In November 2001, she became the first person other than a president to deliver the weekly presidential radio address. She used the opportunity to discuss the plight of women in Afghanistan during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, saying, "The brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists." In May 2002, she made a speech to the people of Afghanistan through Radio Liberty, a radio station in Prague, Czech Republic.

Popularity

Laura Bush was named the second most powerful woman in the United States (after Condoleezza Rice) and the fourth most powerful in the world by Forbes magazine in 2004.
During the January 2005 second inauguration ceremonies for her husband, Laura Bush was praised by People magazine and others for her elegance and better use of fashion.
While her First Lady approval ratings remained high (some polls said 85% approval) as her husband's approval ratings slid she began to take a stronger role in his second term. Among her recent high-profile projects is an initiative designed to encourage patriotism in American schools entitled National Anthem Project.

Views on policy

On July 12, 2005 while in South Africa on an AIDS mission, Bush suggested her husband replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor with another woman. Her husband seemed surprised when reporters asked him about her quote, but said he couldn't wait to hear her advice. On October 2, during a private dinner at the White House with Laura, President Bush asked Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor. Later that month, after Miers had faced intense criticism, Bush questioned whether the charges were sexist in nature.
   In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, speaking at a press conference from a relief center in Lafayette on September 2, 2005, Laura Bush was asked about the fact that most of the people stuck in New Orleans were poor and black. The First Lady said that while the poor are always the main victims of natural disasters, there's nothing that can be done about it. "This is what happens when there's a natural disaster of this scope," Mrs. Bush said. "The poorer people are usually in the neighborhoods that are the lowest or the most exposed or the most vulnerable. Their housing is the most vulnerable to natural disaster. And that's just always what happens."
   While appearing on Fox News Sunday on May 14, 2006, Mrs. Bush responded to a question concerning the Federal Marriage Amendment by calling for elected leaders not to politicize same-sex marriage, "I don't think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously. It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue... a lot of sensitivity."
   Although opinion polls relating to her husband have dropped steadily for much of his presidency, Mrs. Bush has said, "I don't really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me," she said.

Awards and honors

During her tenure as the First Lady, Laura Bush has received a number of awards and honors. In October 2002, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity honored Mrs. Bush in recognition of her life-long commitment to education, the American Library Association honored her for her years of support to America's libraries and librarians in April of 2005,. The Progressive Librarians Guild has opposed(External Link

) honoring Mrs. Bush by librarians because of her support of the USAPATRIOT Act and her cancellation of a poetry forum due to concern that some of the poets would express opposition to the war in Iraq.(External Link

) She received an award in honor of her dedication to help improve the living conditions and education of children around the world, from the Kuwait-American Foundation in March of 2006. She accepted The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal on behalf of disaster relief workers around the world in May of 2006 from Vanderbilt University. Three learning facilities have been named for her: the Laura Bush Elementary School in Houston, Texas, the Laura W. Bush Elementary School in the Leander ISD just outside Austin, Texas, and the Laura Bush Education Center at Camp Bondsteel, a US military base in Kosovo, is named after her.

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