-New Urban U.S. News- Former First Lady Barbara Bush Is Laid to Rest At 92 Years Old

First Lady Babs and Millie

As the wife of President George H.W. Bush and mother to George Walker Bush, she was a bit of a dichotomy: both fiercely protective matriarch to the most powerful American political dynasty outside of the Kennedys, and independent-minded bibliophile whose views were at times in stark contrast to her husband and his voting base, today Barbara Bush, the 41st First Lady of the United States of America was laid to rest after passing away earlier this week at age 92, and after 72 years of marriage to the boy she met at age 16 and married in 1945.

Successful in being able to carve out a signature style and identity aside from that of her family and glamourous, First Lady predecessor in Nancy Regan, Barbara Bush was famously known for her irreverent, often self-deprecating sense of humor.  In addition to a virtual vault of comical public soundbites throughout her lifetime, she will be remembered most in her fight for family literacy, and as an unlikely advocate for AIDS awareness- breaking US silence on and stigma of the disease by publicly engaging with HIV victims during her tenure as First Lady.

Born in New York City in 1925, she was infamous for her frugality and common-sense Yankee approach to her public image, refusing to dye her hair, notoriously wearing $29 shoes to her husband's Presidential inauguration gala, and adopting her signature fashion of wearing fake, multi-strand pearls to, in her own words, "hide the neck wrinkles". Remembered for a tremendous sense of wit and heart, Barbara Bush is survived by her husband, George Bush, 6 children, and extended family.