RootsTech: Laura Bush emphasizes importance of family


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SALT LAKE CITY — As the former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush always put family first, according to her daughter Jenna Bush Hager.

Bush and Hager spoke to thousands of genealogy enthusiasts Friday at the RootsTech conference, each of them emphasizing the important role their family played while living together at the White House.

Bush said that while living in the White House, "reality can get warped."

"I tried not to read the news items about our family," Bush said, joking. "I was very surprised to learn my marriage had gone so far south, I’d moved out of the White House."

As the First Lady, people often asked Bush how she could stand the criticism.

"Of course it bothered me, just as it would bother anyone in this room," Bush said. "It bothered me, but it didn’t get to me. For one thing, I know who I am and I know who George is."

Bush recalled the first night she and President Bush spent in the White House after his first inauguration. Although she knew the coming four years wouldn't be easy, she said she felt at peace knowing her entire family was with her.

"How often does it happen in life that almost everyone you love is safe under one roof, tucked into bed, and accounted for?" she said.

RootsTech Keynote Speakers:
Saturday, Feb. 14, 8:30 a.m.
  • A.J. Jacobs, "New York Times" best selling author
  • Donny Osmond, singer and entertainer
(Source: RootsTech)

Of course, it wasn't the first time the Bush family spent time at the White House.

"For four years, the White House had been the home of my in-laws," Bush said. "I knew from the example my mother-in-law had set that it really is a home."

After Bush moved into the White House, she said her first job was to find her identity as the First Lady. One thing Bush strongly advocated as First Lady was children's literacy.

"For me, reading is not just a cause I selected as First Lady, it’s one of the guiding passions of my life," Bush said. "I believe that every child in America should learn to read."

Bush said she was "especially excited" on Sept. 8, 2001, to bring 30,000 writers and readers together to the Library of Congress for a book festival.

"Looking back, that was probably the last weekend when people could participate in a gathering like that without looking nervously over their shoulders or up at the sky," Bush said.

(Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
(Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Three days later, Bush remembers sitting in Senator Ted Kennedy's office watching the World Trade Centers fall on television, trying to process what she was seeing.

That evening, she was taken to a secret bunker beneath the White House, where she saw her husband for the first time that day.

Although she and her family were safe, all she could think about were the other Americans who "couldn't say the same about their own loved ones," Bush said.

"Like all of you, we woke up on Sept. 12 to a different life," she said.

Jenna Bush Hager eventually joined her mother on stage and served as the moderator in a question and answer session.

Hager, a contributor on NBC's Today show and an editor-at-large for "Southern Living" magazine, has a 22-month old daughter named Mila, whom Bush called "perfect."

Hager also talked about the importance of her family, recalling her grandfather, George H. W. Bush, babysitting she and twin sister Barbara the night before his debate speech.

"Our family always put family first," Hager said.

Hager asked her mother if she had any advice for the mothers and grandmothers at RootsTech.

"Just really savor these moments when they’re little," Bush said.

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