Republican matriarch, proponent of women's rights and literacy will be missed

Barbara Bush, the 41st First Lady of the United States to President George H. W. Bush and mother of six including 43rd President George W. Bush and grandmother to 13 and great-grandmother to seven has died at her home in Houston.

On Sunday April 15, the family announced that she it was decided to put her in "comfort care" in lieu of receiving any additional medical treatment following years of many serious health problems including Graves' disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as COPD and congestive heart failure.

Family spokesperson, Jim McGrath, announced news of the death in a statement posted to Twitter.

Barbara Bush was born Barbara Pierce in New York City.  She met future husband when she was 16-years old and he was a naval officer when he was on leave prior to his deployment during WWII.  They eventually had six children between 1946 and 1959.  Sadly, daughter Pauline died of leukemia when she was three.

The family entered politics. While Barbara Bush was FLOTUS, literacy was her pet project.  She worked tirelessly to advance the cause of universal literacy.

In her memoir, she wrote that she is most proud of her family as well as her work with literacy as reported by the New York Times.

“I want to be known as a wife, a mother, a grandmother,” she wrote in her memoir Barbara Bush: A Memoir in 1988. “That’s what I am. And I’d like to be known as someone who really cared about people and worked very, very hard to make America more literate.”

While in the White House, she avoided controversy, but after her time in the White House ended, she helped her sons with their political careers and would sometimes publicly, but politely disagree with the men in her lives.

People around the world are chiming in to express their condolences and praises for a much loved American figure.

President Trump Tweeted:

Barbara Bush is survived by her husband, George H.W.; sons George W., Neil, Marvin and Jeb; daughter, Dorothy Bush Koch; and 17 grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements for Barbara Bush have not yet been announced.