say to me for ever more don't you remember we got there early and were right in front of the podium and your brother shook hands with soon-to-be president kennedy and i said i am trying hard to remember but i was 4. what i remember is the balloons and the confetti. one of her hearings dropped off and dropped in a pile of confetti. and someone stepped on it but she bent it back and put it back on her here but i would always say you turned the into a political scientist at the age of 4 and forever more. but i think this was y. women in particular, why jacqueline kennedy resonated with them. this photograph is taken from august of 1963. it is another sad time for the family. mrs. kennedy had just lost her son patrick who had been born prematurely a week before and had died of a lung ailment. ..

20% of american households had televisions. by 1960 when president kennedy is elected 80 percent of american households had televisions. mind you, there were all black and white. remember those days? we only had two channels. my students could not comprehend such a thing. we only had two channels. that is true, but the kennedys or on television a lot.

mrs. kennedy and president kennedy where beautiful on television. they were even more beautiful in the glossy life magazine cover. think about those. practically every week one or more of the kennedys, and this is is president and mrs. kennedy. the brothers and sisters and sisters and laws and brothers and law and nieces and nephews, always being portrayed in one way or the other. so as is typical of icons of pop culture icons they both reflect the time in which they live and become a lens by which we view that time in which they left. and since television was going on the scene, this mill funnel is a still from the famous toward her that mrs. kennedy gave on valentine's day 1962. remember, she took into the white house, showed him all the rooms vessey had redecorated, but without a script. she just went through. was not reading from cue cards.

she had all of this. she had remembered all of the antiques, all of the portraits, all of the painters, all of the upholstery, all of the furniture, every story that she could tell. she won an emmy award for that show, and that show was recorded in sent around the world, even to the extent we could get it behind the iron curtain. president kennedy and made a cameo appearance in the last five minutes. he came in to talk. he said, this white house is a symbol, a symbol of american history. he said, when we first became a country 200 years ago there was as are in russia, and emperor. he said, look, as we have grown beyond that. in other words, if you are the third world and still wondering which way to go, take us. pick us. we have great history, great art, great symbolism, and a great first lady. sadly, we know how the story

ends. on november the 22nd 1963 interestingly enough mrs. kennedy volunteered to go with her husband to texas. was a fund-raiser trip as well as a trip to try to bring together the two warring factions of the texas democratic party. mrs. kennedy had not gone out on a domestic trip with her husband for his entire presidency. she, of course, had gone abroad but not on a domestic trip. the rough-and-tumble of campaigning. musty refined for that. she really volunteered. this was just three months after she lost her baby. cn the president, according to all accounts, had grown closer because of that chair experience. mrs. kennedy was so distraught and depressed in the fall of 1963 that the president urged her to go abroad. she went on a greek cruise with her sister's boyfriend,

aristotle onassis. as she came back much more refreshed, much happier, and volunteered to go with her husband. as she said many years later, for all of the horrors she experienced, what a blessing that she could be there with the end came. and so just an hour after we know how the story ends. in those six horrifying seconds in which the shots rang out in the motorcade in dallas mrs. kennedy lost her husband, her home, and her job. imagine what that must of been like for her. and yet she was willing at the request of the new president, lyndon johnson taught, to come out and stand next to him when he took the oath of office. again, those of you who remember that day, i no, have this act burned in your brain. mrs. kennedy refused to change clothes. she was wearing her famous

raspberry chanel suit. she started up the day with a raspberry matching pillbox hat. that had come off in the melee in chaos. syracuse to take off for bloodstained sued because he kept saying i wanted to see what they did to my husband. even though i was just seven at the time, i can remember watching that television and now living room with my family. i can remember that we gas when she came off the plane and was still wearing a suit that she refused to take off. she then became the mortar in chief for the nation. she had a few moments of shock, again, given the word that she witnessed in dallas. very quickly she got her wits about her. she asked her husband's family, sargent shriver, and cabinet members, to start looking into planning the funeral, and see acid be based on ever and lincoln's funeral. she was still thinking of symbolism and history, even in her grief. so here she is coming down the steps of the capital with

caroline on one hand and john on the other. the president's brother, bobby, behind her. his sister, pat, the bodies left. and peter behind the group. and i can only find in the videos one moment in public where she began to cry softly. it was when they arrived at the capitol with the case of burying her -- bury her husband's casket. as of is being carried out the band struck up hail to the chief. but the very famous preface she dropped her head to her chest and began to cry. now, this is the next steps she takes in the image making process. one week after the assassination she is in hyannis port with her family for thanksgiving. she calls journalist teddy white had written that famous book, the making of the president in 1960 and asked them to come from new york where he lived to

hyannis port to write a story about her husband to put into white magazine for that week. and mr. white had to say, we are ready to go to press with that. she said, i don't care. stop the presses. still printed. i need to tell you the story. teddy white's mother was suffering a heart attack. he got a share for and was driven from new york city to cape cod through a driving nor'easter. arrived on the scene and mrs. kennedy began cell and the story of what she had written into dallas the week before. she's paired no details. she had to get the suffer chest. she said to them, i want my husband to be remembered as followed. he loved the musical camelot which was a very popular stage play in new york at that time. he loved the sound track.

his back would be hurting. it would be cold, but we would go out and put on the high fight, not a stereo. we would put on the high fine. she said, i know this sounds trivial, but i can't get this out of my mind. this keeps going over and over in my head. don't let it be forgotten that once there was of thought for one brief shining moment known as camelot. says she is the one who picked that metaphor, who picked that word picture, that image to describe her husband in the brief presidency. i would maintain shining. and so just to remind us, i have the cast here. richard burton, robert calais, and julie andrews from the broadway show. her very final symbol of that weekend, those three days of the funeral in washington d.c. in november of 1963 was task that

at arlington on the hillside just down from the cuts were hurt husband was buried that there be an eternal flame. she thought that would be such an appropriate metaphor going back to the inaugural address that he says the torch's been passed to a new generation. you might remember at the funeral, she, bobby, and teddy all with this eternal flame. she also then hired john carl weinberg began, her architect friend, to put together and design this very grave site, and i'm sure most of you have been out to arlington cemetery to see it. she also asked, and i think this is telling, that she be buried there when she died in 1994 of lymphoma. she did not ask to be buried in greece, she did not ask to be buried with aristotle onassis,

her second husband. she has to be buried with her husband and these other two headstones and then to of the children they lost, patrick and another daughter that she lost as a stillborn child 1950's. so, to help you put this into perspective in terms of where it is jacqueline kennedy falls when it comes to literature about first ladies, you may have been here for the first to talks. you may come next week. this is what this dollars think about first ladies in the modern era. by the way, those of us to study first ladies take eleanor roosevelt and put her in a category on to ourself. she is, as my wonderful mentor would say, generous. on to herself. there is no one like her before or after, but for those who come after, i maintain that jacqueline kennedy is abridge first lady because she bridges the gap between the very traditional lady and of

eisenhower and then the most modern first ladies, really starting with labor johnson. all of them have had public policy with the exception of nixon, past public policy that they worked on and their husbands of restoration. so if i did a game right now that said in that policy, for every first lady i'm sure one more of you could say, oh, i know exactly what the first lady is famous for. now i ask you, what about laura bush and currently michele obama? you put them in the category of the supportive spouses or would you put them in the second category of more of the presidential partner in response to their husbands? i would say think about this as a semi final point. that is that i think laura bush had to be the on hillary. hillary in the minds of the american people seem to go too far on health care initiative. people began to say, wait a minute.

she is not elected, not accountable. if we don't like what she's doing we have no way of reaching her. remember, hillary dialed back in knots and became more of the traditional first lady by being in favor of women's issues like charles advocacy. so i think that suited her personality and also suited the times in terms of what we wanted from the first lady. i think michele obama had only been there two years and still feeling here wait. right now acting more the traditional first lady, a traditional policy in terms of women's issues. children and exercise an anti obesity. see also has two young children that cities to focus on. here is my last question. what about future first lady's? what model will they use? what about when we inevitably have the first first gentleman? and asked me to say a word about my next project. i am writing about another kennedy woman, the president's

mother. i believe she started the entire process of kiddy imagery by creating images herself of her children, her husband, our family, and her son as president. i hope he will look for those in the next couple of years from the norton publishing company. mother of the kennedy image. there are books available about all of these first ladies about whom you have heard here at the society. i would be happy to sign mine, and i would just like to say, we have about ten minutes or so if you have questions. please feel free to ask. who would like to throughout the first question? >> yes. >> can you touch upon how she handles when all this was going on as far as. [inaudible] >> the question is, did i touch upon the so-called scandals or improprieties, particularly of her husband. is that test upon a my butt. of course.

this is a book of scholarship, history, a fact. and so one cannot ignore that. in fact, what i think she was trying to do the week after the assassination was get out in front of those stories. now, there is a whole book called the dark side of camelot written by investigative reporters who came out in the late nineties. and it is about this. if one wants chapter and verse of the improprieties, and fidelity's of the president on the personal side as well as mistakes that he believed he made, particularly in foreign policy, be my guest. back yourself out. rita from cover to cover. you will see that side, the dark side of camelot. i don't know if she was taking into mind a week after this assassination how history would you residence policies, foreign or domestic, but most people think she knew at least to some extent of his infidelities and

there is indication she did. so i think she was trying to get ahead of that by creating this camelot mythology legend, if you well. so what i do is because i am focusing more on the images they see is creating, i make the case that, again, symbols are not always true. they tapped into ideas that people want to believe in as true. people wanted to believe in camelot. they wanted to believe in this shining golden age that was the kennedy administration and that she, therefore, succeeded in getting out in front of those stories that would come out about her husband's personal life as well as revisionist history that would come out and will continue to come out. i would also said it this 50th year that we're calling it camelot, we still use that metaphor we created the get things they did in the mistakes

they made. president kennedy's own personal peccadillos. but by and large people still have an interest in his presidency and then hurt. you are a testament to that. >> what to you know why think about the movie due out this week of the kennedys that was drawn up by the history channel because the kennedys objected to it. >> thank you for bringing that up. there is a move that will be out this coming week. it will not be on the history channel. there were some questions about the validity of some of the portrayals of the kennedys and these very peccadillos, especially the personal ones. the dark side of camelot -- camelot, even if only half of it

is true, is pretty bad. one must ask, could all of these negative things beecher? and what happened with the movie was ted sorensen, president kennedy's famous speech writer with him my matt, i should say, to do an interview about mrs. rose kennedy. i met with him back in june. he passed away this past october. ted sorensen, rose, the of the kennedy image. check his head and looked a little negative. i don't like that were damaged. to have he was trying to portray the substance of the kennedy of ministrations of when he worked for senator kennedy, president kennedy, and all the years after. he never wanted people to think that there was no substance and style with the image. i understood why he took issue with that. he also was leading the charge against this upcoming movie because he believed it was filled with inaccuracies.

and so i guess it's like anything that is in the media, whether a television show, movie made for television, books, be a scholarship or journalistic quality. it's all up to us to decide based on our own reading and understanding of the record how much is true as being portrayed. what we should say is this is not a golden portrayal of the kennedy administration. if i can find it on my new digital service from comcast, came out. of, you know, that movie is coming up. i'm pretty sure i saw the channel when i first got my up credit package several weeks ago. it seems to have disappeared. will probably on the phone. if nothing else to say, a scholar of the kennedys, and so i will watch it in case i get questions like this where people will say, have you viewed it and what did you think?

i am sensing a will probably say the same thing about it as i say about the book, dark side of camelot. even if half of the bad things are true, that's pretty bad. it's all up to us how we want to bring the balance of our view of the kennedy administration first to meet policy foreign and domestic and then set in the personal side. i would just say that if we disqualify every president who had an extramarital affair, were going to be down to of a number of men who qualify for the white house. i think there was another question back here. >> yes. >> a just wanted to tell in a few more words about eleanor roosevelt. >> still have that chance next week. if you want to compare her to mrs. kennedy, let's do. >> your statement about children and the white house. from the first two years of the roosevelt administration she had two grandchildren in the white

house. >> she had many grandchildren, and there are wonderful photos of her and fdr and the white house surrounded by at least a dozen of them. i should also say to you that i have no pleasure this past december of dining in beecher wrote beach appear in the hotel george. was with a colleague. i said, uc that sentiment became an. i said, you know, that looks like one of franklin roosevelt's grandchildren. my friend quite understandably said how would you know what one of franklin delano roosevelt grandchildren looks like. i said i have seen this one on c-span. i saw him on c-span two years ago. my colleague was too embarrassed to go up to this man. i of course, showing no embarrassment or shame go up to this man is having dinner it turns out with his daughter and say, are you frightened residents grandson. he says to me as i am. and i he says -- he was on the democratic committee trying to

determine whether mrs. clinton or barack obama would get a college of the delegates so they are around. we can still see them today. but they had a number of young children and the white house which is wonderful. usher the american people love seeing it. not quite the same as the first couple. there is still something that is beguiling, especially if there are too young beguiling children as there are now in the white house and as there were in the kennedy years. you also may have heard the story that because mrs. kennedy was so concerned about privacy, she would draw lines about when the children and how the children could be photographed. famously when she would leave the by house and she often did a long president kennedy would go to his press secretary and say,

is time to get pictures of the children. some of those most wonderfully compelling photographs that we have a president kennedy in the oval office clapping and the children dancing around him on the carpet, those were often taken when mrs. kennedy was a way. i think we have time for one more question. yes, sir. >> can you talk a little bit about her understanding of her image and how that would play out during the onassis marriage? >> absolutely. a little bit about how mrs. kennedy's image played out once she remarried. of course in 1968. remember the timing of that for her and for our country. her brother-in-law, bobbie, to whom she had grown so close in those intervening five years from when her own husband died and bobby you had become a surrogate father to caroline and john was himself as tracked down.

mrs. kennedy supposedly commented, our country is just going crazy. if they are killing kennedys, my children might be next. she was obviously looking for safety and security analysis represented by having his own island bite off the coast of greece to which ticket taker and the children, not to mention his own yacht, and not to mention millions and millions of dollars because even though we think of the kennedys as being love the and mrs. kennedy had been left fairly well-off, it was not necessarily enough to support her and live the way she was grown accustomed to. so she was obviously looking for some financial security. but i think what you're probably driving at is that she did take a hit. her image took a hit for two reasons. one is dead aristotle onassis was viewed as a rather unscrupulous businessman. number two, he did not look like

president kennedy. if you put yourself out as the queen of camelot and then you marry a natural, i'm just saying, people take that personally. i can remember my mother saying, how could she, after she was married to that hansen president kennedy, how could she married aristotle onassis? in his defense i should say that about ten years ago, maybe a little less, when i was first writing this book mrs. kennedy's sister appeared on larry king, that very scholarly show. and he asked her. he said, what was it that your sister saw in aristotle onassis? and well, i had been interested in mr. onassis. you just have to understand. he was so charismatic. the way he would move through room or out in public. he moved like a potentate. so there was something

compelling about him in addition to money apparently that both the boo the sisters were drawn to. you're absolutely right to infer that mrs. kennedy's image to take a hit. she dropped in some of the polls where people are as to is your most admired american woman. she tended to drop in those years. she went back up after he died and after she continued to live this life style in new york of the rather quiet life working as a chinook and there. but also working for historic preservation, for our example, grand central station. and so she actually went up in the polls toward the time that she died in 1994. she was well up into the top ten category of most admired women. her image came back. so, do we have time for one more? one more.

[laughter] i did not get a chance to ask and then not sure that she commented when i saw her. my sense was that, perhaps, things were winding down with the romance and that mrs. kennedy took over where that had wound down. but i have to say i don't know the exact answer to your question. it is an intriguing one. with that, thank you all so much for your attention today and for your wonderful questions. [applause] [applause] >> this book is part of the university press of kansas modern first lady series. for more information visit kansas pressed that case you got edu. >> what are you reading this summer? book tv wants to know. >> i have a long list of books. some are unfinished and some are new. the first book i am working on is monsoon which is a book by robert kaplan about the whole

issue of central asia. quite think most of the politics and the next 25 years will occur there. i have read chapters of this and traveled to various parts of indonesia, but i want to read the whole book. i haven't finished it. i started in february. another book given to me by a fellow in my office and the american academy of mechanical engineers who worked with me on the question of water. i said to him, what problems of water are going to be over the next 20 or 30 years. in this book he said, what you to read it. i was never able to write a perfect report. a good book to read about the whole question. and it is an issue that in congress we need to think about in the future. judge freedman wrote a book called the next hundred years which is a fascinating book that looked out 100 years and looks

at who our major allies will be, those countries we are involved with who had trouble. so when he came out with this next book which is called the next decade as figured i better get that one red. see what point to happen. at least from the perspective of people who look at trends. one of the fascinating things in this first book was he said the countries will be involved with will be turkey and poland. i thought, well, i never thought about that. i thought about turkey, but never poland. he said we would have a war with mexico in the next hundred years. a whole lot of things in that book that were very fascinating. i decided i'm going to read his second book which is really. the other thing is, as congressman everybody who writes

a book sends once of the office. you ought to read this book. and so we get all kinds of books, many of which i put in the short and send off to my office in seattle. but i also get people who recommend books to me. you should read this book. friends and so forth. one was sent to be bought by longtime secretary about china. a man who left china. this is a ymca director who went to china in the late 1800's and chronicled, though most definitive chronicling of china's contribution to science in the world. she said, you ought to read this if you want to understand where this is coming from. it's not new. it's not like yesterday they discovered science are yesterday they discovered. they have been there for 6,000 years. here is a guy that put it

altogether. a very good book. she said, you ought to read it. a lot of bucks. i started this book. started again because i forgot some of what i wrote in the first part. these books will keep me occupied for the summer. >> tell us what you are reading this summer. send us a tweet. >> up next on book tv, myra gutin recounts the four years of barbara bush as first lady. more political listed and successful than her husband andy tells a former first ladies understanding a public relations. this is about 45 minutes. >> thank you. thank you. good afternoon, everyone. thank you for being here. i was listening to something that someone said as i was coming in. i have been teaching about first ladies now for 30 years. i occasionally will teach a

semester long course, but i also teach to various groups in my community and other communities. i just want to show one quick anecdote. one morning i came into of room, and barbara bush was featured in this. a woman said to me, and wondering. i see you're going to see is not someone that i'm going to talk about. part of the british royal family. this woman elected me like i had perpetrated some crime and picked herself up and left the room. i never saw her again. she never got to hear about barbara bush or anyone else for that matter. but this afternoon my topic very happily is the woman that was

known during her time here in washington as the silver fox and has always been non-tariff family as barb. that is barbara pierce bush. i started to work on the barbara bush book. it seems eons ago, probably at the beginning of the 2000's. the book was finally published in 2008. i was very, very fortunate. mrs. bush was kind enough to see me. she made access to every member of first half available, so i do feel that what i was able to share in the book is a pretty balanced interpretation of her time, both in the public eye and in the white house. our time is limited this afternoon. and what i would like to do is share with you some basic biographical information, just a little bit. if you have questions about that or anything else on more than

happy to address them during our question and answer time. but we will have a quick look at her biography. then i'd like to share with you some thoughts about her advocacy of literacy, her great success as public communicator and finally for wrote and reactions to the campaign of 1992 which for her in many ways was a watershed. as i was preparing for this, i thought the other with three questions i really wanted to answer for you. one was, what made barbara bush different? second, what made her special? finally, what was a legacy? generally speaking published is, perhaps some one of our best ever liked first lady's. the fact that she was so popular made it possible for her to

achieve the things she did. think of her predecessor, nancy reagan, a very polarizing first lady. think of her successor, hillary clinton, another polarizing first lady. sort of the still waters. and these things move along. so she had tremendous popularity. this grandmotherly. at least that was the public persona. the private persona was a little bit different. i found her to be a political realist, tough, smart, and savvy. she always had her husband's back and so that's. as i said her popularity she was

born in new york in 1925. she was the daughter of a gentleman who at that point was the assistant to the editor of the magazine. later on he would become the president of the magazine. and she really enjoyed a life of affluence. she went to the private country day school. when she got to high school she went to ask the hall in south carolina. and so an important moment in her life. and dance at the round tree country club. during christmas break of her junior year. she was introduced to a young george bush. that was his nickname. and she said that when he was in the room he was so tall and attractive that she could hardly jury -- brief. later on i found this wonderful"

she said when i tell my kids that george bush was the first man i ever kissed they just about the rollout. this is really, by the way, very typical. she is the master of self-deprecating humor. she has never minded pointing at herself and making herself the but of her own jokes. but she was smitten with young boys, he with her, and they were married in 1946 when he returned from his service in world war ii. he had been a fighter pilot. mrs. bush always thought that she was going to be settling down with an investment banker in new york. but much to her surprise george bush said to her, no, i think i'd like to have a career in the gas and oil business. we're going to texas. interestingly they went to taxes

in 1948, 1949. and mrs. bush's mother was so appalled that there were going there. she was so convinced that taxes in 1949 was just a frontier town that she used to send barbara packages that contained ivory soap and tissues because she wasn't convinced that they had stores there this all those things. they did. however, being in the oil and gas business in odessa and midland taxes in the early fifties may be was not so much removed from the reality of a frontier town. george w. bush had been born. they're always tie chief -- child born before their went to texas. when there were in texas they unfortunately went and experienced sadness. following george w. bush their son was born. in a daughter.

it was then found that robin had leukemia. there is so wonderful interview. it's generally about barbara bush, one part of the interview is george bush. he says, we were told by the pediatrician to come and talk to her. she said to us, this child has leukemia. he said, and i quote directly, we didn't know what the house she was talking about in the early 1950's. what was leukemia? he said the pediatrician said, well, your daughter's not going to live there much longer. they made a decision to take her to new york where she was treated with an experimental protocol and died nine months later. and barbara bush, to no one's surprise at all, had a very difficult time with this. she dealt with depression for a while. then eventually she emerged.

the two other children were born, two other boys. then finally much to the families great happiness dorothy bush, known as burro, their only daughter now was born in 1959. mr. bush went into politics. barbara became the political wife. it was observed by reporters at the time that if there were slights against mr. bush or if he lost a race barbara ticket more seriously. by the way, that has always been the case. barbara has been devastated when mr. bush has been rejected by voters. so without going into too much of the detail, and am happy to answer questions later, in 1980 mr. bush was poised for a run for the presidency. now, just before this mrs. bush said she realized since mr. bush was going to actually make this

run see better have in mind a project for this national campaign, whenever it was going to be. and she took heart from something that ladybird johnson had said years before, and i'm going to quote here from my book. lady bird johnson had said about the white house, it would be sad to pass up such a bully pulpit. it is a fleeting chance to do something for your country that makes your heart sang. if your project is useful and people notice it and that reflects well on your husband's, heavens, that is one of your biggest roles in life. and mrs. bush says, i could have never guessed that i would end up with such a chance to be useful and such an enormous return on a relatively modest effort. she investigated a number of possibilities for her project, and she decided that she was

going to focus on literacy. there are some people who have suggested that the reason that she did pick literacy was because her son, neil, was disgusted. i asked her about it at that time that i interviewed her, and she said, no, that really was not correct. she was a lifelong reader, a lover of reading, and she just felt and here, i'm going to quote from her again. people could read, she felt everything else was going to be able to be improved. less drug use, less teenage pregnancy. she just felt it was important. literacy was going to be your project. mr. bush was getting ready for the presidential campaign and was in the presidential campaign. barbara got on a plan together milwaukee and a campaign stop.

she gets off the plane and goes to milwaukee. the president runs up to her and says, mrs. bush, we're so glad you're here. i have 40 of our states top literacy experts here to hear you. mrs. bush says, i was panicked because at that point i did not know anything. so, thinking quickly when they all sat down barbara bush said to them, well, tell me, if you were married to the president of the united states what would you do? they went around the room and said before our time was up and only half of the unspoken and i was rescued she said, but i took copious vets and learned a lot that day and continued to learn. she said because mr. bush did not win the presidential nomination. he did when the

vice-presidential nomination on the ticket with ron reagan, she decided she was going to continue following up in this area because it was a very solid project and one that would benefit the country. with their own money she hired two people to help her develop this as an area of expertise. she had breakfast where she invited experts to the vice president's residence. she spoke and read. she read extensively. during her time as wife of the vice-president she was involved in 537 literacy events. i can't completely tell you that this is accurate, but my account of the bush library of for literacy speeches during the vice-president seat was 225

which is a fair amount of speaking about the topic. i want to apologize. i have been ignoring passing around photos. i will pull these up. mrs. bush. i'm just going to pass them around. i'm going to invite you to have all looked at them as things move along. thank you. and one of the photos you will see is mrs. bush reading to young children, which she did many times. coming a little bit on the heels of learning all about this was mrs. bush's own foray into writing about trying to help with the literacy effort and becoming a writer and her own right. she wrote a book in 1984 called cease fred's story. fred was her dog. you may think it's pretty odd, but actually, it was a dog's eye

view of what went on in the life of the vice president and the second lady, mrs. bush. and that little book earned about $200,000 in profits which mrs. bush was able to earmark for various literacy organizations. everything would really intensify when she became first lady. she let everyone know when she was on the campaign trail in 1988 that if mr. bush was elected to the white house her particular project was born to be literacy. she made good on that promise. in march of 1989 she formed the barbara bush foundation for family literacy. it continues to exist to this day. the foundation began to publish materials. it gave out grants. as of the time when i wrote the

book, 2008, they had given away $16 million in literacy grants. mrs. bush said to me, i have nothing to do with the grant selection process. she said they are nice enough to keep me up today and let me know what's going on. interestingly one of the first grants by literacy foundation was to a literacy projects in little rock arkansas being run by hillary clinton. interesting that they intercept. during her time in the white house 18% of misses bush's speeches were devoted to literacy. she was a voice for the program, a friend who is very much involved in curriculum and development said to me she put a human face on literacy. she talked about an issue that at that time no one was really very interested in addressing.

this whole idea of into generational literacy. mrs. bush did talk about it. she traveled to school, she traveled to the places where students were receiving ged degrees. she showed up on oprah. she spoke about it there. she wrote articles. we know, for sure, that she affected both the national literacy act, the a bolt -- adult education act. this is from a woman who said even when i met her i really had no effect on legislation. i would always argue that she put that particular issue and made it part of the national conversation. this seems to me that it was pretty successful. one other thing particularly stands out. september of 1990 mrs. bush began to read stories on the radio to young children.

fifteen minutes every sunday night. the particular program was called mrs. bush's story time. the walmart company was very interested in this. they ended up taking the various stories that she read and put them on sale. you can still buy them now walmart and all of the money goes of the barbara bush foundation for family literacy. highly, highly successful first lady project. moving into another area that i wanted to share with you are her efforts as the public communicator. i suppose this warms my heart because i am a professor of communication. i would have to say generally looking at barbara bush that she was active, but she was also cautious as a first lady. she never wanted to of put herself into the position where it was going to take george

bush's political capital to clean up our mess. that was the way she explained it to me. she also wanted to say early on that she was barbara bush and she was not nancy reagan. and there was something that i always loved in the week leading up to the inauguration. she was doing and have been in washington. mrs. bush says, my mail tells me there are a lot of fat white haired ladies that i tickled pink that i'm going to be first lady. and she also got a great kick out of the fact that her image showed up on this side of the d.c. bus for an ikea furniture ad that said nancy reagan's salad barbara bush prices. what is really funny about this is barbara bush was always really very wealthy and aristocratic. she probably was more affluent

and nancy reagan. no one seemed to necessarily react to that. pardon me. as i mentioned, she was really quite an excellent public communicator. pepsi was the last first lady's who did not have to deal with 247 coverage. that began when cnn gained legitimacy. not only that, but there were no blocks. it really still was a different time. the first thing i believe in this regard perry will speak about this. they looked at the tour of the

white house that jackie kennedy gave in 1962 using, people really like tear much more after that. she a program on abc. a tour of the family's level of the white house. it was very endearing. it was one of the reporters who was going on the store. he says to barbara bush a one. , i understand that during world war ii you went to visit the white house and would walk around altogether. the first lady was permitted. i was definitely permitted. and then later on she goes out

on said the white house balcony that have been built by harry truman and sam donaldson sister. you know, mrs. bush, this particular balcony was built by mr. chairman. barbara says, well, isn't that interesting. i would know. i wasn't born then. she had a good time with it, but it really warmed up both of the bushes. george bush walked to one side of the room. a toy chest for all the this pushed selected and the press to have a long history of working on capitol hill to be her press secretary, and she gave for this advice. she said, if i said it, i said it. that meant, if i said something, to be a favor, don't interpret what i'm saying.

i'm into it. if someone needs to interpret it, i will be the one to do it. please don't do it for me. that is an interesting approach to first lady press relations. you know, many first lady's have many people who will spin things the way they want them. mrs. bush obviously felt very strongly that she was going to represent yourself. there were no regular press conferences, but there were press opportunities. mrs. bush got along well with the press, but i found something in her memoir where she said something that everyone in public life has to understand. the press has the last word. she held occasional press meetings in the family quarters of the white house. everything was on record. the reporters had mixed feelings about there. sometimes they found her very

outgoing and very helpful, especially with regard to literacy. other times they found her hard to deal with because she was not willing to open up as much as they would have liked. i think i'm safe in saying that is probably the complaint about first ladies going back to martha washington. nothing new. during her time as first lady mrs. bush gave 449 speeches. again, of fair amount of public discourse. she did not come easily or naturally to being a public speaker. she worked very hard at it. early on when they came to washington she develops slide shows the pc had one about the gardens of washington. when they got home from china she won and would coordinate this beach with a slide show. it often give her confidence. she had speechwriters, but she

also had significant input into whatever was being said. this leads me barely into one of the defining moments of her time in the white house. she was invited to be the commencement speaker at wellesley college in june of 1990. shortly after it was announced 150 of the 600 sent to be graduating wealth the undergrads why signed a petition saying they did not want her as their speaker. they felt that she was coming as mrs. george bush's said the barbara bush and had not had any significant accomplishments on her own and that they had been taught to do something quite the opposite. mrs. bush reacted with relief, you know, very good humor saying, and even i was 21 once. there are looking at things a certain way, and i'm looking at

them another. there are some story as to feel that maybe this reaction tenafly's irritation, but i did not get that sense at all when i interviewed mrs. bush. she also said to me, when this whole of occurred there were many wealthy graduates to said there would never again give money to the college. she said we wrote hundreds of letters saying please don't stop giving. this is just the opinion of some. in fact, over time as the issue was discussed, things began to turn. i just want to quickly share with you a "from that time. hopeful for children of very serious. she wrote, if the wealthy students can't imagine what barbara bush could contribute to their education, imagine your own mother.

to deny them a voice is to suggest they have not received anything of any importance. they give you a voice and a seat at the commencement. how important is that? so slowly things turned around. the young women who had opposed her began to recognize that maybe she had something to tell them. by time she flew up to wellesley on the day of the commencement address. i just want to very quickly share something she said near the end of the speech. the three choices in life, try to get involved in something bigger than themselves. in her case that was literacy. make sure that life had joy. and in her case that was marrying george bush. also, not to miss the joy of human connection. i always thought that this

little passage was really very nice and very well put. i know from the six different versions that i saw of the speech that barbara bush had significant input. she said, for several years she had impressed upon you the importance to your career of dedication and hard work. this is true. as important are your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, or business leader will be. you are a human being first. those human connections, spouses, children, friends, the most important investments you will ever make. at the end of your life you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. you will regret very much time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or parent. and at the end came that he