An Evening with Barbara Bush and Laura Bush, 11/15/12.

good evening I'm Anita McBride chair of the enduring legacies of America's first ladies conference thank you for joining us tonight at the Lyndon Baines Johnson library for the final session of today's conference a moderated conversation with former First Lady's Barbara Bush and Laura Bush I want to first thank Linda Johnson Rob for hosting us today we appreciate so much your gracious hospitality Linda it's been a wonderful day here at the LBJ library throughout the day historians family members and former staff took us on a journey into the world of an American first lady we gained insight into the choices these women made to shape their work and support the president their families and our nation this intriguing position has no job description no statutory authority and no salary yet our first ladies have extraordinary power to influence and throughout our history each first lady has used her platform to advocate for issues she cares about and help advance our society in innumerable ways the idea to more fully examine the role of an American first lady and her influence on politics domestic policy and global diplomacy began with an inaugural conference at American University in Washington DC in March 2011 that conference underscored the great interest Americans have in their first lady's the result was a partnership between American University the White House Historical Association and the National Archives presidential libraries to take our show on the road today's event marks the last of a trilogy of conferences hosted by the three presidential libraries in Texas although I'm delighted to announce tonight the plans are underway to host a next conference at the Ford library in spring of 2013 but Texas holds a special place in American history with three presidential libraries two living presidents and two living first ladies it was the perfect place to start this series it's been a privilege for me to direct these conferences and work closely with the presidential library directors and their superb teams as well as all the panelists and moderators and presenters who have lent their time and expertise to make these conferences so successful both Barbara Bush and Laura Bush jumped right on board from the earliest days of our conversations about this concept Laura Bush was eager to bring it to Dallas even before the george w bush library opened and that was fine with Barbara Bush as long as we went to College Station first but the schedule worked perfectly to time this conference at the LBJ library to coincide with events honoring Lady Bird Johnson centennial in December these three women knew and admired each other and each has been a gift to our nation we thank them for their service and their example of strength and family love and love of country it is now my honor to welcome to the stage the director of the LBJ library and tonight's moderator mark Updegrove and two special women I deeply admire and to whom I'm grateful for giving me a bird's-eye view to history please welcome former First Lady's Barbara Bush and Laura Bush nice wedding room if we let you go they told me welcome Thanks we are honored to have you here tonight and the the no one would have been more pleased about the conference today than Lady Bird Johnson you can feel her spirit hovering over it's almost palpable this evening I know that she was an inspiration to both of you and I wonder if I can start with you mrs. Bush and ask and by the way there's a little ambiguity in terms of the so Laura Bush has graciously allowed me to call her Laura for the evening so I will be referring to her as Laura and you as mrs. Bush I would certainly hope so or maybe according to Jenna the enforcer Jenna Bush earlier today referred to her grandmother in that night uh what do you most recall about ladybird Johnson mrs. Bush well I came to with my husband to the Washington Lady Bird was so generous you couldn't believe it she invited every member of the 57 delegation Democrats and Republicans to come to the White House because she said she had never been upstairs at the White House which seemed amazing to me and she knew my mother long she was very very generous I remember that we went and sat in the Queen's bedroom and they told us all sorts of exciting things and she was a wonderful generous loving first lady I she was my favorite first lady until Laurel became first then she became my second favorite person that's high praise Laura you were actually I said welcome but I should say welcome back because if you read Laura Bush's memoir you will realize that she was here when President Johnson laid in state in January of 1973 lined up with the thousands of people who filed past President Johnson's flag-draped coffin and you met Lady Bird Johnson that day what was what do you recall that's right I was in graduate school here in library school and President Johnson died and in fact one in my library school professors wept in class because he felt like he his education really that President Johnson had made possible for him with legislation that he had done for education and then you Linda and Lucy and your mother stood in line as thousands of people lined up to walk through the library here as President Johnson lay in state and so I was one of them I lined up and and shook your hands and shook your mother's hand and of course never expecting ever that we would share anything in common really except that we were Texans and and that we had been together that one moment but then also I got to entertain Lady Bird Johnson at the White House really when George was governor and we lived here we saw mrs. Johnson fairly often we hosted the opening luncheon on the governor's mansion lawn for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and then went that evening to the opening gala at the wildflower center and so I saw her some during those years but what I really remember was before that when your dad was president and how proud I was of a Texas first lady who thought our state was beautiful and who really did what I mean I think she really was one of the very first real environmentalist in the sense of using native plants the the you know plants that would be the hardiest that would lit use the least amount of water that would grow the best in all parts of our country and so I was always really proud of her and and had that same interest myself in in a restoring native Prairie that we do now at our ranch and in Washington when in the spring when the daffodils bloom always being able to think of Lady Bird so I always admired her a lot we spent the afternoon talking about the role of first lady mrs. Bush you were second lady of the United States for eight years when your husband served as vice president to Ronald Reagan but I wonder can any woman be adequately prepared for the duties of first lady yes you're the wife of a governor or if you're the wife of the vice president or if your mother-in-law is first lady and you've watched her for four years yeah I think you can and I think it's a golden opportunity I need to do something I think ladybirds the one who said it you know it's an opportunity to do something good and if it by chance helps your husband all the better but I think you can be prepared for it and I was very lucky because I'd lived in Washington as the wife of everything I mean he was a congressman he was a head of the CIA he was he was everything he still is everything but no I think you can be don't you yes I do think that I had a huge advantage because I'd been to the White House so often to stay with President Bush and Barbara and because I had watch bar and I really didn't know a lot I mean I knew things that were very mundane and you know how to do the Christmas card the White House Christmas card and every time you know I mean I just knew how to do all of those things because I watched her and knew how she did it the decorating for Christmas mean all the did you tell them how you hadn't been in office in a month when they're coming and saying what's the theme for next year's Christmas exactly you haven't unpacked your bags yet yeah so what surprised you most about the world after you took it on how glorious life is to never have to worry about plumbing or electricity or meals or miss unbelief or your menus or your soppy and a food I mean is really great and Camp David certainly certainly was a huge thing that our husbands both use to meet with people quietly and not have pressure and press and I I think that's sort of surprised me the most about how easy life was and oh baby do I miss those 91 people who made my life why are we moving home is quite the adjustment don't know is it as yeah exactly if you did do the dishes or what surprised you most about well I think really lady I not quoted Lady Bird often when she said she had a poke that the first lady has a podium and she chose to use it I think that was her quote and I think really knowing that I it was after I made the presidential radio address about the at the treatment of women and children in Afghanistan by the Taliban and right after that I was here in Austin visiting Jenna who was at Texas and we went shopping and the ladies at the cosmetic counters who worked at the cosmetic counter in the department store came up and said thank you so much for speaking for women in Afghanistan and that was really the first time that I thought hey they heard me and I did I think I knew intellectually that the first lady had a podium but I didn't really know it until after that and I had knew what Lady Bird had said of course you sit on Larry King shortly after taking the role you were just surprised about the impact were there other manifestations of that after the radio dress you mean you're sure I mean just the the other thing I got a phone call from one of my best friends in roommates and in college who said that she had thought after September 11th I mean she had thought that she was so glad she wasn't in my shoes and then after September 11th she said she felt a little jealous because she thought there were things I could do and she wanted to do something and everyone did and that's what really I saw after the radio address were just ordinary Americans everywhere across our country coming up to say what can we do and how can we help and they really wanted to help the people of Afghanistan and the girls especially in women had been denied in education I mean the very idea for us as Americans is shocking that a government would forbid half of its population from being educated and Americans wanted to help and still do it you also comforted you told people after 9/11 to comfort their children and not forget that they were scared and I thought that was wonderful well I did that also because the first person I wanted to call was my own mother you were a little old for that yeah exactly but I did call her and say mother were fine and everything's fine but really I just wanted her to say yes you're right everything is fine and here about the comfort of my mother's voice and I knew that kids everywhere would want that and I actually was just in Kansas City with a friend doing a Heart Truth event about a heart disease and the woman who was the hostess for the big event said I just want to thank you she said you told us to comfort our children and she said my children were in college they were well grown and I thought well I don't need to call him but Laura Bush said so so she said I called my daughter and she said Oh mother thanks so much for calling so I think people did really want to reach out everyone did and they wanted to hear the comfort of the voices of the people they loved I imagine one of the challenges when you become first lady is moving into the White House and trying to make it into a home for your husband and family so how do you make a hundred and thirty two room that we call a people's house you were home mrs. Bush well I took my favorite sort of furniture with me took my needlepoint rug and paintings for that one room the room off the bedrooms sort of a family room some kind of family room 18 foot ceilings and and put my own curtains or drapes there and do you know what they wouldn't let me take them with me when we left match my couches but anyway uh somebody get mrs. Bush a lawyer too late too late now if the couches almost worn out after all those years but we made it home it was very nice I honestly think that Jerry Ford was the first president who slept in the same bedroom and his wife that's right their family room was your father's bedroom well family bedroom and I slept next door and with the dog but it you make it home and I must say they're so sweet the people who work in the White House and when we went back and I bet they were there Linda when you were there some of the same people were there when we went back with George and Laura eight years later whatever it was that they welcomed this home as though family was back it's a it's very much a family feeling I think it really is and when mrs. Johnson when Linda brought mrs. Johnson to tour the White House when I lived there I got to take her on a tour and she had a stroke by then and they had lost her speech but she was still so expressive the way she would put her hands together if she saw a painting that she liked or I remember we looked at your dad's portrait and she sort of put her arms up like that to the portrait of her husband but when you drove up the doorman at the White House mr. German Wilson German had come back and was work in retirement was working as the doorman but when the Johnsons lived there had been the maitre d so he he and I are on the you know at the door as you all get out of the car and he literally falls into your mother's arms she's in the in a wheelchair coming up so that's the kind of staff that worked there for president after President and you really do feel like when you see them you're going to fall into their arms again again it's great well mrs. Bush in your memoir you quoted Lady Bird Johnson you looted this quote earlier as saying it would about the role of first lady it would be sad to pass up such a boy pulpit it's a fleeting chance to do something that makes your heart sing so in that I believe I think that was a great lesson and I did ask our staff to plan something every single day that helps somebody just by having one or handicapped children come by it helped now granted they didn't put it in the paper but nonetheless we we did do it and it went to the hometown papers but we tried something every day that helps somebody because you do have the bully pulpit then it's a mistake if you don't use it truthfully but your passion was literacy still is still had a big fundraiser in Dallas two or three nights ago no it's in my opinion and certainly laura has done much more than I have but every single thing would be better in this world if more people could read write and comprehend there's just no question about mrs. Bush was referring to the foundation that's named for her the Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy which thrives today Laura your passion was reading as well would talk about what you did to further that cause in Europe well I had your dazing them founded the National I mean the Texas Book Festival when George was governor and so right after I moved in the librarian of Congress called me and said don't you want to have a National Book Festival and I said yes and of course it was great to work with the Library of Congress to to found the festival and it goes on today it was the inter September this year it's now two-day festival when we started it was just one and it drew 200,000 people to the National Mall and I think that's great that's one of the things I love I love it that that Book Festival and the Texas Book Festival are really institutions now and are going on you know great Russia that's right and then I mrs. Putin came to our Book Festival and then she hosted a Book Festival that shirring it Blair and I from went to write you both became the wives of wartime presidents during the course of your 10 yrs in the White House Lauren 9/11 was a defining moment in your husband's presidency and in our nation's history how did you role change after 9/11 will it change so much I was I gave people a tour of our library yesterday we're giving hardhead tours we're very close to finishing the building and I walked through the museum part and our museum is set up where the very first part there's a little biographical part and then you walk in and there's something on No Child Left Behind the legislation that was passed on tax cuts which were passed on the National Book Festival which was on September 8th the first one 2001 our first state dinner which was for Mexico on September 6 2001 and then the first t-ball on the White House lawn there's George's big baseball collection so you walk into the museum and you walk through these very happy and sort of optimistic all domestic issues and then you turn a corner and it's September 11th and we have the huge beam from the World Trade Center from the 83rd floor where the plane hit in the second tower in the middle of the big display on September 11th and then the videos that follow from the first moment of the first plane to Shanksville and then the big videos that go for the days up until the 20th when George spoke to the joint session of Congress after September 11th so really it was something we didn't expect at all we really expected that George's presidency would be focused only on domestic issues we didn't you know we weren't in a lot of ways you're never prepared for that that you know that's sort of shocking happening and of course it changed everything for us and it was the whole focus really of our eight years the whole idea of terrorism you write very movingly about the morning of September 11th and spoken from the heart and you talk about being with Ted Kennedy of all people on Capitol Hill what do you recall about that more well I was going that morning I mean I really when I looked back and wrote the book and looked at those months leading up to it we were doing what we thought we would be doing and I was going to Capitol Hill to brief the Senate Committee on education than Ted Kennedy was the chairman of the committee on early childhood education I'd hosted the summit that summer with early childhood specialists and so just as I was getting in the car my agent secret service agent leaned over to me and said a plane has just hit the World Trade Center but we didn't really know what that meant I mean we got into the car and went on to the Capitol because we just speculated that it was some horrible accident or some really strange accident but by the time we got to the Capitol we knew this complained it hit and we knew that it was a terrorist attack so I joined senator Kennedy in his office and then senator Judd Gregg from New Hampshire who's one of our very close friends came in he was the minority chairman of the committee and Senator Kennedy kept talked the whole time and just kept up a steady stream of small talk and showed me photographs on the wall he showed me a letter that his brother Jack had written when they were younger kids and Jack had written this letter to his mother and he said Teddy's getting fat and Teddy had laughed about this and I never knew I mean I never knew if this was his mechanism because he'd had so many shocks in his own life dealing with this kind of tragedy or if he thought I would fall apart if he didn't you know just keep acting like everything was normal and just you know give me a tour of his office and talk about the history of his office and and the whole time he talked Judd Gregg and I would just sort of look at each other over you know his shoulder because we were sick man we literally felt sick but then we went out and spoke to the press to say that the scent that you know the briefing obviously was just postponed you know already it was just going to be postponed the terrorists weren't going to make us cancel anything and you know and then of course senator Kennedy went into the Barry you know said exactly what he should have said in that kind of situation and then we went back to his office for a while and then we went the three of us went to Judd Greg's office on our way out of the building while the Secret Service decided what to do with me because they didn't know they you know first we thought we'd go back to the White House and then people at the White House were told to run and did and so then I went to a secure location but of course what none of us knew was that that plane that crashed in expel probably was headed to the capital hmm and our capital is so exposed you know on a hill like it is thank God for those people on that plane mrs. Bush you and President Bush had spent the night at the White House the night of September 10th at the White House what was your experience on 9/11 why do you write about this in your senior second we climbed on an airplane to go to the Twin Cities st. Paul and Minneapolis I guess we both like speaking engaged yeah and then halfway there they announced that the plane had crashed and then another one and they stopped and left us in a little town I've forgotten where now but it was outside of Milwaukee yes outside of Milwaukee but we were put put in a funny old motel and sort of sat in this motel finally George said we'd been there forever we talked to George and they said we said we got to get out and get some fresh air so we did go walk across the street there was a public golf course was fascinating nobody on the golf course either cared or knew because a golf and we sort of mentioned there was a little problem and oh yeah we went to have dinner that night at a restaurant little place next door to the motel and it was very sweet because people came up leaned over it I love this as a guy and his t-shirt a big truck driver t-shirt with hairy armpits leaning over George saenctum sir I want you to know I'm going to back your son no matter what I'm with you all the way I was the George just I'm sure he's thrilled with what he's saying but the pin in his faces not exactly his factory but people came up and said the sweetest things to us truthfully really sweet things to us and then somehow or other because no planes were taking off as you recall I don't quite know how it worked but somebody persuaded the government that we should be allowed to go back to Kennebunkport that it was safer there which of course is ridiculous because we're sitting a point out in the water but he can come get us but anyway but we got to go home the next did we spend the night there I think you spent one that it had brown sheets I don't like very spoiled yeah I do remember that I don't how did your role change when the Gulf War broke out Myra Myra yes your role yes yeah I know I would well it just like I went to visit lots of camps like Laura did visited with this soldiers families military families you know I have never been prouder of my husband because he set up he really taught us how to keep the peace which was he talked to people from all over them and so we had a great coalition and and it worked I mean it really worked it I think I've just because I think George Bush W Bush is the second greatest president but I think there's no question that my husband is the greatest president I believe that well I remember when George and I when the Gulf War broke out and George and I lived in Dallas and I can remember standing over the television in our kitchen and the how nervous and anxious we were you know how I mean you'd it's just very very high tension anytime there's any sort of war in the United States but when your father or your husband is the president and commander-in-chief you know the it's magnified and I remember how anxious we were then and then of course I felt that same sort of anxiety for months on end while we lived at the White House mrs. Bush you watched your just call me Barbara I saw that look before I'm not calling you Barbara I just want it embarrassing I uh you saw your husband go through the Gulf War you saw your son go through 9/11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is it harder to be emotionally the wife of a president or the mother not listen the mother house and the child and the child for us oh so say we had nobody's job president President Bush president no I think it's very near the other but it wasn't easy ever it's never easy when you send somebody else's child into Norway I mean it's just not it's not easy but I I still think the George did it and and all circumstances changed you can never do the same thing twice but in this case I really think he did a superb job as did our allies they were wonderful no law lives were lost at that first amazing talk about being the cheddar I've spoken to your husband about the most difficult days that he's had politically and he says without question the most difficult time he ever had was when his father lost the election 1992 is it more painful was it more painful for you to watch your in-laws yeah where was yours it is when do they lose I think what happened to you but also when you're there when you're the actual ones living in the White House you know there there's just a lot more than when you're just watching on television or reading all the press about the person you love and you see how they're characterized in a way that you know they're not right and that's very very difficult and they and that's just a fact of life in the United States and politics and I knew it in fact that was the reason that I was slightly hesitant when George wanted to run for president because I knew that that's what happens to the people who serve there Jenna said earlier when she was talking that you know this is for Jenna and Barbara I mean their grandfather and their father were in those positions and they saw how one-dimensional but we make our leaders and you know that's really what she likes to talk about that everyone that's there is a father and a husband and a wife and a mother and you know has all these other roles that make them real the real people that they are I honestly think and certainly this last election is a good example people spoke move on get on with it do other things but I'm tired now of the election I want to get on and have people do positive things and not be ugly and not be mean the enforcer gets a little rude with their friends when they want to rehash it all again and that's how bar was when gampy lost bar just said well that was it let's move on gotta move on and that's her personality which is actually very smart I think psychology what good's the other day well other people might well know sort of worrying about life is good well it dovetails nicely into the next subject I like your sport which is one of the most memorable moments when you were first ladies when you made that wonderful commencement speech at Wellesley College with rays a Gorbachev and in it you advised the graduates that they should do everything that they can to find that UI alive so how do you find the joy in the White House when the burdens are so formidable well if you're lucky like we were you have faith family and friends and we were very lucky and had strong faith unbelievable family and I realized that more every day and wonderful friends so what more could you ask that that that strengthens don't you think well you certainly had lots of fun but that's really true I mean that is really true all of those things you're comforted by that you're comforted by the American people I mean it's many terrible things as you read every single place we went people would say we're praying for you people Americans pray for the President of the United States it's very comforting to hear that and you hear it over and over every place you go so you know there there's a lot of you get a lot of strength from the American people I think and it's not just the way you read it in the newspaper or hear it on TV really well one of the ways that you seem to find Joy's through humor and one of the most memorable moments in your tenure as first lady Laura was when you made that wonderful speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner about life in the White House with George W Bush can you talk a little bit about that speech and what you said that evening when I was a desperate housewife when I said that mr. excitement here had already gone to bed at 9:00 o'clock amid Lynne Cheney and I had gone to Chippendales and that I wouldn't even tell him except we ran into Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Ginsburg there and so it was fun but out but after that every time we traveled overseas for a year the head of state we were visiting would say desperate housewife you know they were shocked I mean it was shocking to people in other countries that we have these roasts of our presidents and they're about five a year every year if you go to all of them so where everyone stands up and makes fun of the President and then he has to stand up make fun of himself his money story now after President Bush lost the 1992 election you invited Dana Carvey to the White House and David datacard of course did that wonderful impression of President Bush on Saturday at live what was wonderful to those some of us watching it anyway yes uh how did that invitation come about well George did that but he the whole White House was so sad and gone and of course they're looking for jobs they've all been fired by the vote and they were just so dreary so he asked Dana Carvey and we hit him in the White House we took him to the Kennedy Center Honors but we hit him but nobody knew he was staying at the White House so when you know he's any bitty little guy when they we gathered all the White House staff in the Big East room and then they went diddly dick to do MIT ladies and gentlemen the President of the United States and this itty bitty little walks and he was funny and and he was very cute and George imitated him and he imitated Jordan anyway it raised the level of feeling and it made a difference that people are so loyal and so sweet they're still loyal as we some in this room who were very still loyal to George both George's but I'm thinking my Georgian sister but I mean they are still and they're very loyal to him because he's loyal to them and so is george w i mean that makes a big difference in life but they needed to be cheered up things were glum they're all looking for jobs that's very sad well you don't know I found some Laura what was the most challenging moment that you came upon in the White House well I mean obviously September 11th would have been it for us and those weeks afterwards where we met the people who had lost somebody on September 11 and then always to be in war you know to have to worry every single night when you get in bed about your troops to think about them at night pray for them and you know I would feel so guilty when I knew they were I was getting in these and that you didn't even mention this but one of the true luxuries are the fresh new iron sheets every day on the bed in the White House I like that and think about our troops sleeping in the sand in a tent somewhere in Afghanistan and one time I told them I was having lunch with some troops in a military base and I said that and they said Oh miss Bush we're doing what we want to do you know that's where we want to be I have two grandsons who've been to Afghanistan and home which is great mrs. Bush what did you find to be the most challenging moment during your 10 years first just exactly what Laura said I think the will because we had an unmarried daughter at that time and that was fairly challenging but d'Oro had gotten a divorce which was very sad and people it was challenging or not but sort of because people dated her who I don't think really were that interested it was very complicated and their uncles would say oh this is the most wonderful fellow in the world you got to go out with him Daryl I'll set up a date which they would do and the first thing they'd say to her was something like you know the thing I don't like about your dad which time Dora would stand up and say you know my babysitter for my two children has to leave early I just came to tell you I can't have a day late but that was hard for her I don't think was the most challenging but it was sort of fun and we loved having children living there we have children now living near us in Houston makes difference or what is the most indelible memory of your White House here well there are so many I mean it's really hard to pick one I mean those kind of memories the memories of meeting people I mean we had so many we had a lot of tragedy the Columbia ship you know spaceship and the I mean just so many that it's hard to the ones that are really sad that you'll never forget but there are many many happy times too we had really we our friends always came we had we had 12 White House I mean Camp David Christmases I'm sure it's the the four years that the bushes were there and our eight years since the bushes were them that's right and so we have a record that no one will ever break I think numbers of Christmases at Camp David so there were many happy occasions as well and you got to explain to them I don't want you to think that you paid for all these guests we had because we sure had a lot of them we paid for every bite they ate now an egg cost 18 cents and they were itemized so but every bite our guests ate that was not official Laura and George or George and Barbara paid for but they were minor and it made all the difference I think in enjoying well giving you some kind of reasonable peace to have friends I did have this is a very personal memory but I had a really good friend who I grew up with she was my next-door neighbor in Midland and she lived here actually and she had breast cancer and I'd seen her over the holidays Christmas holidays and said we ought to have a mini reunion at the White House and she said well let's do it sooner rather than later so for Valentine's that February 14th we had maybe five couples or six couples of our friends that we had grown up with that we've known our whole lives in Midland for a valentine dinner in the Red Room the perfect place to have a Valentine dinner and I was so happy I did that we've actually of course all these friends spent the whole weekend with us and then we had the fun Valentine dinner and then a few months after that our my friend died but to have that memory of having the Valentine dinner with my longtime friend was fun Lord when I interviewed you a couple of years ago at the Texas Book Festival you talked about bringing your friends into the Oval Office for the first time would you mind telling that story so we organized since we did both grow up in Midland had a lot of the same friends my best friends now were in the second grade with George then and so George loved to tell how he would to have these friends like my proctor and those kind of friends into to the Oval Office and they come in and say Cobb Bush I can't believe I'm here and then they'd look at him this is but there is something really great about having the longtime friends that kind of history of friendship where they'd known you at every stage of your life long before politics and nobody ever said that about my husband exactly they always thought he would unless everybody thought he would yeah just kidding did you tell him Georgia's new vice that's exciting Georgia's taken that painting oh you're an oil area and he's good that's the most extraordinary thing no it really is good well the truth is he gave up cigars and he had to find some pastime I heard he was still chewing them here though well eating them now the enforcer would have stopped that mrs. Bush is there one particular White House memory for you that burns brighter than the others well I think Christmas at the White House was spectacular I loved it and I loved the Christmas trees that had all the fake snow on it and we had a lot of grandchildren there Marshall and Walker and Sam and Ellie and Sam was sort of mischievous still is actually and they anjana and Barbarin they had snowball fights and and the wonderful people who came to the White House every year same people's competitive they came every year and they decorated for a week before they closed down everything they made huge reason whatever your motif was for Christmas why they they made whatever it was whether they were needlepoint Christmas or st. Nicholas Christmas or whatever it was they worked for a week making that White House a jewel and it's so exciting and then you have people who come to play bells downstairs or to choirs that sing for half an hour different groups come in all the time for the tours and they have these unbelievable musical or wonderful times it was great you would hear the music raft upstairs from them if you really liked I remembered when we when we went of course every Christmas to the white house when they lived there but one year was I don't know what year was the character the whole huge Christmas tree in the Blue Room the big white house retrievers were covered with storybook characters Christmas that the that the White House you know florist and ushers and electricity electricians and everyone in available so I borrowed those for the Center for our second White House Christmas and you know I loved the idea really like any of us would use our mothers or our parents Christmas ornaments later be passed on and have those ornaments and it was really fun to be able to use yours they know if you're at the George Bush library you will see the needlepoint Christmas it's up this year going to be and so all of those wonderful ornaments are part of the National Archives and so Allen Lowe who's the head of the George W Bush library will be unpacking all of those things when he moves in so we can set those things they're very stingy about letting your kids know you have yours do we have yeah sure that's where I borrowed a story look yeah I'm glad I lent them but I know the needlepoint is is up because people hundreds of people made needlepoint characters they're wonderful Laurie talked about how it's painful often when you see your husband characterize a certain way in the press what is the biggest misconception or what was the biggest misconception about President Bush during his time in office you know that he was sort of a heedless cowboy character term that was it I think oh well George it to me makes me so mad yeah we who wants to even talk about no why not that draw the question what was the big exception about President Bush there was none he was the same but my son very unfair I really think that I think the blame game don't even mention it I'm sorry I brought it up forget it it's just unfair he's a very spiritual and I hear people say something buddy's a drunk yeah another drink in 30 years don't even bring this don't even bring it up don't bring it up you both talked about Camp David what makes Camp David so special well it's beautiful for one thing in the Catoctin mountains in Maryland very very pretty and and for the president and family of the president where you're really in a bubble and it's hard to go out or go for a walk it's great to be there where you can be outside all day and go for walks and lots of sports which are really fun for our family bowling we always had the bowling family bowling tournament ollie Bowl they had a lot of investment and fun things but don't ever think for a moment that they're away from being president because I remember it was there when they called and said Noriega had been caught I mean they're just you're never the president is never away from the job but at least he can put on his polo shirt and walk but you're never away let's flash forward from it you took the good works that you did in the White House into your post White House years or talk about what you're doing at the bush Institute well we're focusing on four policy issues that were the most important to us when George was president one's education and one's economic growth and human freedom and global health and I'll just tell you about one of our initiatives the Global Health Initiative we partnered with the US State Department and with UN AIDS and we're adding the testing and treatment for cervical cancer which is the leading cause of cancer death in Africa to the PEPFAR platform the press Emergency Plan for AIDS relief platform that's already set up now because of PEPFAR that was started when George was president so we've been to Africa twice since we've been home to launch pink ribbon red ribbon in Botswana Zambia and Tanzania and we'll continue to do a launch it in other African countries so we last summer we refurbished a clinic in Zambia and then women lined up to be tested for cervical cancer and that now I hear they're demanding to be tested because they've got a lot of publicity and because they know people have died from cervical cancer so that's what we're building on what we did when we were at the White House with that initiative and then of course other really great things but that's been fun and interesting to be able to do and life-saving right absolutely Mississippi's talk about what you're doing through the Barbara Bush punishment actually my children have thrown me out and I'm now honorary chair but what I'd sort of like to talk about is the thing I'm proudest of I'm proudest of the fact that our grandchildren and I'm sure to forget one but Lauren has started the feed program and is fed I think 68 million children around the world and Pierce thesis Neil's children and Pierce has is heading the Big Brother Big Sister program in Houston trying to raise ten million dollars along with all the rest of our grandchildren in the next year or so and he has a little brother who's he's had for three years and Lauren I did say Lauren did not yes a bar Barbara I'm sure you heard today has the Global Health Program she started out going to be an architect but traveled with her parents saw the need of people dying when they didn't need to and got it took up Global Health Jana worked for UNICEF and taught in school and I don't want two of them have gone into the military and gone to Afghanistan keep helping me I need help the anyway they're they're very Oh Ellie works for the Conan Foundation which has had a terrible problem this last year and stepped loyally with them they have saved millions of lives and because of one stupid something why people forget that and they shouldn't forget it because they have saved truthfully millions of people's lives and I'm trying to think I have a lot of other ones but they're not owned enough I guess but they've all gone into public service and that is a copying their saintly grandfather now you talked about your relief the fact that the election is over when we did the last conference first lady's conference at the George W Bush library you expressed dismay over the fact that compromise in Washington has become a dirty word do you have hope for Washington in the future if you don't have hope I get you don't have anything but yes they're going to have to compromise they just have to and it isn't a dirty word it's part of the way you get things done in business and in life I must say for me who never listens to anyone else's arguments that's pretty pretty bad just ask Pierce he and I argue all the time but I would compromise I think compromise is very important Laura you've only been away from Washington for four four years but has it changed since you and President Bush live was not really that's right when we had the last conference it was nominally at the George W Bush library but there is there was no library yet we will cut the ribbon on that library and welcome it into the family of 12 and soon-to-be 13 presidential libraries in April talk a little bit about your Presidential Library if you would well it's almost finished I think the archives will start to move in that Monday after Thanksgiving which is great which I think will take several months to move everything in the museum installation will be installed the museum will be installed and then will open on April 25th it's a beautiful building Bob Stern was our architect he's the Dean of the Yale architecture school we started when we started working with him on the design we immediately began also with the Landscape Architect and taking after our mentor Lady Bird our whole 14 acres is planted in native plants native grass is native trees to our area they just sewed the Bluebonnet seeds so hopefully we'll have a bloom of those for the opening the lady we worked with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to establish native turf grass it's a four I think the seeds from four different Texas native grasses and this will be the first big installation of this grass that we've tested for the last few years at North Haven Gardens and Dallas had a test plot of and it's a should be a very hardy turf grass that can stand up to a lot of wear but that need to be watered very much Ora mowed very often so that's all really beautiful I think it's really going to be lovely we have the full-scale Oval Office that you'll be able to walk into and at the desk and have your picture made and then we have a Texas rose garden so you'll walk out of the Oval Office just in the same aspect that the president would walk out of the noble office into a rose garden but ours of course instead of crepe a crabapples I think we have crepe myrtles and instead of tulip magnolias we have southern magnolias and so it's really going to be for instead of the box would we have dwarfee open so it really will be a Texas variety of the Rose Garden but it will be after you've walked through the part about September 11th and then the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the museum and then you can walk out at that point go through the awful office and walk outside the rose gardens secure it's part of the actual museum tour so you can go outside and be refreshed after that part of the museum that I think will be very very affecting and I think people will want to go outside and reflect on them on what happened on September 11th and then come back in and finish the museum to her we're a little myopic when it comes to our presidents and it takes us a long time to see the forest for the trees and assess their legacies objectively but this is which I wonder if you can offer your thoughts on how your husband will be remembered in history I think he'll be remembered very well I really do I should say one more thing about George w which people I don't think know but he calls his father at least four times a week which he never did before in spite of reading that he called for advice but now he calls him because he's getting a little bit older and not so well he calls him at least four times a week which is very touching to me and wonderful first dad I want you to know that about it I don't think he has that reputation but he should know he should because he's they all are great me and daro are the the biggest well they're all good they all call but George W is really wonderful about it the stat is very proud of him and loves him more than life but what was your next question I was asking about President Bush's legacy how do you think he'll be remembered you'll have a very good legacy because I think he's taught not that people took this lesson but I think he taught them that you should communicate and that you should talk I remember the very first thing he did as president practically was call other heads of state and just chat with them he said someone told him to do that and then you feel when you need them as a friend you've talked to them you know them and I remember waking up at Camp David one morning and hearing George say Bonjour Francois como tal even thinking my god he is president he's calling the President of France now his French wasn't quite up to it but anyway he I think I think they'll remember him as a gentle wise kind man who is a saint yes nothing to cigars that's for sure Lord can you offer your thoughts on on the man who choose to go yeah exactly who actually eats to Mecca Admiral well how would you be remembered I think he'll be remembered for somebody that loved freedom and that knew how important freedom is for our country for our world and who just had who stuff and who kept us safe I think that's what they'll remember it's big but I also think they'll remember that he has a heart and I think that's what PEPFAR and the other global health initiatives are that he started I think they he knows that America has to lead and that we just have to and if we don't no one else will and that it's really important because of our values that are you know our how important we think freedom is and democracy is and how we think how important we think our each of our own responsibilities as citizens is to our country and that's really not like every other country so it's important for us to be able to let people see what our values really are before I thank our honored guests you see behind me the White House here in the White House is not only a place for presidents and first ladies but for families and staff members and we have many in the audience that I'd like to just recognize quickly to family members Steve Ford and our own Linda Johnson Rob are in attendance and we have tonight staff members from the Johnson Ford Bush 41 Clinton and Bush 43 administration's would you stand up be recognized for your service please now as many of you know we are undergoing a major renovation of our core exhibit on Linda and Lady Bird Johnson and in the Great Hall where Laura Welsh paid her respects to President Johnson and met Linda Lucy and Lady Bird Johnson will be the portraits of all of our presidents and First Lady and an exhibit on the tradition of the presidency and the legacies of our first lady's I can tell you that when we look at your portraits we will remember this very special evening and both of you very fondly thank you so much for being

Channel: TheLBJLibrary

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Keywords: Mark Updegrove, Laura Bush, Barbara Bush, LBJ Library

Id: oCH5K_QfSSI

Length: 63min 42sec (3822 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 21 2012