Heidi Alexander: “yesterday, our country lost a bright, caring, independent lady, and my wife, Honey, and I lost a good friend. Barbara…”

“yesterday, our country lost a bright, caring, independent lady, and my wife, Honey, and I lost a good friend. Barbara Bush set a wonderful example as mom, wife, First Lady, and advocate for adult literacy. We express to the Bush family our sympathy and great respect for the life of Barbara Bush. Jon Meacham wrote the biography of George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush's husband, to great acclaim. He had access to the diaries of President Bush and Barbara Bush that was almost unparalleled in any Presidential biographer's experience. So it was a plain and unvarnished biography that told us a lot about those two individuals. I thought a better name for Jon Meacham's book--it was named ``Destiny and Power,'' and it must have been properly named because it sold a lot--would be ``The Last Gentleman.'' If I were to make a really accurate suggestion about the title for the book, I would call it ``The Last Gentleman and His Lady'' or maybe ``The Last Gentleman and His Very Independent Lady'' because Barbara Bush was a very independent lady. I remember it was 1991. It was a sunny day, and we were walking on the south lawn of the White House. I was the Education Secretary, and I was walking with the President and Mrs. Bush to the announcement of his GI Bill for Kids, which was a school choice program for low-income children.…”