beginning with what it was like when you first get to the white house. you have this great line where you said "i woke up with the president-elect." what's it like to wake up with the president in the morning? and know you are in a place with 132 rooms and you have to make it a home? how do you do that? >> the house really i think was very easy. we brought furniture for the one family room, which was beautiful. and our own curtains came, matched the couches that we brought. it's -- first of all, 90-some people who work for you are family. they really are. and when we went back all those years later, eight years later, when george and laura were there, there was our family. they were still there. there are some of them still there. not many anymore. old age got them. >> did you have a favorite place in the white house where you liked to go? >> well, i loved my little office, because it was -- besides being nancy reagan's beauty parlor, which she didn't like me to say, but it was.

the dogs were born there, and you could look out the window at jackson place and the -- what's that park? >> lafayette square. >> lafayette square and see all sorts of wonderful things. nobody else faced that part of washington, but i saw more people protesting us and some people who loved us, and i saw people at weddings. they would back up and have a wedding picture taken. i saw my first black bridesmaids dresses backing up to have their pictures taken by the white house. i mean their dresses were black, which i thought was amazing. but it was -- i loved looking out at the people. >> i can well imagine. how about you? how did you go about -- and you had already been there. >> i had already been there. i had a huge advantage that nobody else had had except louisa adams. i had been there so often. having been there with my

father-in-law president bush that is really is a home and i knew bar had made it into a home. it was a home where our little girls when they were 7, when their grandfather was president, could slide down the ramp from the conservatory, the solarium that you saw in several of the photos earlier, the wooden ramp, slide down on their bottom or make the running jump to the one big antique bed that was so tall that it required steps to get into. but barbara and jenna could run and jump on it at that age. they also, when the obamas came for the tour, they showed sasha and malia all of those tricks from their childhood. at the white house, sliding down the ramp and jumping on the beds. so i really knew. and because i knew there was this really magnificent collection of white house furniture, i didn't move anything with us. we had just moved into our ranch house which is where all of our furniture went. so i brought one chest of

drawers for my dressing room that was george's grandmother's, just to have that there, just to remember her. and then i brought some of our books, a few of our books. i also knew that we would get lots of books. so i didn't bring our whole library, and just brought personal photographs, and then had a wonderful time going to the big warehouse. you can't call it a warehouse, because it's really climate and temperature controlled with a conservator, storage space where all the white house furniture was and bringing back different pieces to the white house. >> to what extent are you aware of other presidents and their -- their first wives or first -- maybe. and their first ladies being there in different rooms? >> i think very much. i think there is a place in the white house that later became closets for ladies clothes, that's where i hung my evening clothes and things, that if you walk down looking out at lafayette square where

presidents made great pronouncements to people, and we brought a historian up. lincoln historian up, and he said i can't believe i'm here. now, granted, they had redone the white house, but he felt he knew it. so he went right to the closet. down the corridor, and i think the girls' rooms opened. >> on both sides. >> but he ran right down there and he looked. and there wasn't the portico or something there. and he could feel lincoln giving the speech. >> wow. i can imagine that. >> and it was very exciting with him. one thing i forgot to mention, the thing i love most was i could hear jenna and barbara, and i could hear marshall and walker, giggling and laughing and riding bikes and swimming and who knew what? anyway, and george loved that. they would swim and come in -- and neil's children. but they lived in washington. dora's children, and jenna and

barbara, they all came to visit. but it was so cute. it made it home. >> i can imagine that. >> and beside that, your own house when your grandchildren come, they work. when they come to the white house, there are 90 some people who will take care of them. >> when did you think of restoring the lincoln room? speaking of lincoln. i was able to see that, and you just did an amazing job. >> really, do you think of presidents the whole time you are there, and there is great comfort in that. you think of all of the other challenges that other presidents faced and that our country faced and how we overcame all of those challenges. and especially in a time when we had troops in iraq and afghanistan. it was very comforting after september 11th to know we can overcome this too and that we'll move on and while peace may not be forever, neither is war, and there is a great continuity of living in a house where all of the presidents, every one of them, except for george washington had lived before you.

so one of the things you do, you live with these effects of all the people that lived there before you. you live with their decorating, with their taste, their choice in -- in furniture, or in china or in decorative arts. all the things that were acquired by the white house during other terms. and slowly, i moved different pieces from the storage and set up each room and at one point during the second term, we determined it was time to redo the lincoln bedroom. it had last been done during president ford, i believe. actually set up as a bedroom after truman renovated the white house. the bedroom, the bed, had been in a room that's now the upstairs dining room across the hall from the presidential bedrooms. the room that's now set up is the lincoln bedroom, was lincoln's office before the west wing was built. obviously all the offices down

at that end of the residence hall and it was the room that lincoln had signed the emancipation proclamation in. and we owned one of the five original copies of the gettysburg address, written in lincoln's hand and that was in the room and our guests, who would come stay in the lincoln bedroom, would look at that copy of the gettysburg address and read it and weep. it was very moving to see. and so i worked with the white house historical association with the furniture curators and historians that are part of the advisory board, and we had little -- a little remnant of the wall party that had been on the wall of his room. we had photographs of the lincoln bed with the gold corona with purple and gold drapes that hung down from the corona. we knew from white house records that the corona had been sent away from the white house in 1927, so we reproduced all those things.

so it's not a real reproduction, because it's neither an office or a bedroom, but instead both. we went back to the same mill in england that had run the carpet for him on the 27-inch loom. >> wow. >> and we knew from the records that the carpet was "g" and "o," which the curators think meant green and oak, which is green and brown. and we went to the same mill, and they didn't have records of what they had actually sold to the white house, but we used a pattern that we think was the pattern. so it was really, really very fun. >> so exciting just to know that lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation in that room. it's a great story. he had shaken so many hands on new year's morning, his own hand was numb and shaking. he put the pen down. he said if ever my soul were in an act, it is in that act.

and if i sign with a shaking hand, posterity will say he hesitated. so he waited and waited until he could sign. and it's a really big, bold hand for him. it's great. >> do you remember the first guest of the bush family who stayed in that bed? we immediately sent is a new mattress for the lincoln bed. the most uncomfortable bed. it may be historic, but bucky and patty bought a new, our brother and sister. said nobody could sleep on this bed. >> i'll never forget one night i was able to sleep in churchill's room, and no way i could sleep. i was certain he was sitting in the corner drinking his brandy and smoking his cigar. that's the theme of a favorite story in world war ii, and he churchill came after pearl harbor and roosevelt was supposed to sign this document putting the allies against the axis powers. but roosevelt didn't like the word associated nations and wanted to call them united

nations. comes wheeling in to churchill's room to help him the news. but churchill is just coming out of the bathtub and had nothing on. but churchill said oh, no please stay. the prime minister of great britain has nothing to hide from the president. so anyway, speaking of churchill, sticking his stomach out, i recognized there is no regular ritual day in the white house, but what amazed me about you is number one, the athleticism of you. number two, that you wrote a diary. we historians are so sad to think that in the future 200 years from now, people are not going to have diaries. it's my favorite. time when you wrote in the diary? >> i wake up very early. i woke up at 6:00 this morning. >> and wake up lively? did you wake up lively? >> i don't talk to anybody. no, i wake up, put the dogs out,

get the coffee, pick up the paper. but in those days, i really woke up pretty lively, and i just learned how to use a computer, and i -- i wrote a diary and actually jon meacham has been given permission only, because they're not to be open for 50 years because i'm pretty naughty. frank. >> frank is a good one. >> who would guess? >> not to my precious daughter-in-law. anyway, i wrote a diary, and he is allowed to read part of it. but i didn't -- i'm ashamed to say i did not write too much about we have a war going on. i really wrote more about i don't know what. i haven't read my diary in years. it's in the library and anyone who reads it other than john meacham just a certain number of years will be shot. >> i guess as an historian, i i'm not going to be reading that.

>> well, barb is so unbelievably disciplined. it takes a lot of discipline to write in a diary, and then she would go to the white house pool and swim laps. every morning. >> now i can't. since i have new knees, they sink. i'm in real trouble. >> what fun it must have been to live with you. >> i don't know as george thinks so. >> i think he does. >> so speaking of routines of the day, when i read your memoir, the funniest thing was when you talked about at the white house correspondent's dinner your nightly routine. will you tell these people about that? i loved it so. >> well, the white house correspondents dinner, have you probably seen it every year on television, but it's the evening when all of the white house correspondents, the press that are assigned to the white house and their guests, and they always try to outcelebrity each other and invite lots of celebrities come to roast the president.

as george said, everyone makes fun of the president, and then he stands up and makes fun of himself. so george was always very funny at every one of the white house correspondents dinners. but finely he said i have run out of ideas. why don't you surprise everyone and speak? so i had a very funny speech, i think. and george got up to speak to the crowd and kind of laughed and started telling a joke. and i sprang up and pushed him out of the way and said no, no, not that old joke again. and people gasped. i mean the people i was sitting with thought that i really had just jumped up. but then i talked about being a desperate housewife and how mr. excitement here was already in bed at 9:30. and i said that one night lynne cheney and condi rice and karen hughes, who i think is here and

i had gone to chippendales and i wouldn't even have mentioned it accept sandra day o'connor and justice ginsburg saw us there. but, you know, that sort of humor doesn't really translate to most countries, because most countries you can't roast the president like that. so for a year after that at least on foreign travel, heads of state when we were somewhere else would take me aside and say are you really a desperate housewife? >> humor is such an important thing. >> those things sometimes backfire. i can't remember which dinner, but there is a white tie dinner. >> the gridiron. >> the gridiron. >> where they take themselves, pardon me, so seriously, you press. i decided it was on april 1st. i decided ah-ha, so i worked with my hairdresser. and i wore a red wig and came out in my evening dress.

and george says you're not going like that, are you? i said, yeah, i am. so we went to the dinner. some people thought i had cancer. some people said who is that woman with the president? nobody thought it was funny. i had gone through great trouble to get this wonderful wig. any way, it backfired. people were saying how are you for days after that. >> and you were just fine. to what extent do the first ladies get involved in preparing the meals or menus that will be eaten just for your ordinary nights? >> none. >> ordinary night, no. but the state dinners, they give you choices of different menus and actually, everything they cooked was so good. i do wish i was there again, only for the meals.

>> we did have tastes for state dinners. we usually invited congressmen who weren't going to be invited to the state dinner over. >> you were much smarter than we were. >> to be the guinea pigs. but the white house chef would give us a weekly menu. if there was something on there we didn't think we would want, we would call and say don't fix that but they were pretty terrific. >> it was unbelievable food. and lovely people. >> i can imagine. one of the things i remember, of course, that your husband didn't like broccoli. and that became a famous moment. do you know fdr hated broccoli, too? >> oh, good. >> and his chef at the white house who was a woman, and she was really tough, would constantly serve him broccoli, because he should eat it even if he didn't like it. >> i read that in your book. >> exactly. >> i did. >> and then every morning he served her oatmeal every single morning. he finally cut out cornflakes, 19 cents. post toasties. couldn't i have something other

than oatmeal? he said he was getting chicken six nights a week. he said his stomach was rebelling so much that he bit a foreign power. so texas is so fortunate to have had three first ladies in recent history. tell me about your feelings for lady bird johnson who i had such enormous respect for and so lucky to have known her when i was 24 years old. >> we adored her, truthfully, both george and i. and i felt so badly, probably shouldn't say this. when we went to washington i was so offended by the attitude of the kennedy people who would say to you oh, i wish you had been here in the good times instead of these awful texans. and finally at a dinner one night i said, you know, i'm a texan. and they said no you're not. you're from the east. i said well, then my five children are. we stopped doing that, we stopped going to those dinners. they ridiculed her accent.

she was the most wonderful lady. she did more for beauty in this country, and she was so generous and genuine. i loved her. and until laura, she was my favorite first lady. >> i also really admired her. i was at graduate school in texas. when president johnson died and his body lay in state at the lbj library. and i lined up. they were there, lady bird and linda and lucy, greeting every single person that came through. but i did get to take her on a tour of the white house the last time she came to the white house, linda brought her and she was in a wheelchair. and she had lost her speech by then from a stroke. she was still so expressive with her hands. if she saw a painting, i showed her president johnson's painting again. and she put her arms out to him and when we met her at the door, the doorman was -- had been the

mater d, he had come back from retirement when the johnsons were there, and he sort of fell into her arms and they hugged. so it was really a wonderful pleasure to get to show her the white house that last time. >> she came to the white house when we there were too. and told me a story about the picture of the little grumpy girl. >> thomas aikins? >> that's right. a group standing look agent it, and someone said, maybe lady bird, said, isn't she grumpy? and a voice in the back said she wasn't always. i married her. you know the picture? the little grumpy girl. >> you know, what it shows is when we often talk about first ladies, and i'd like to talk that in a minute. we talk about what they've done and you have both done so much on literacy and reading. but the relationship with the president is such an important thing. and jbj was such a character. he would go off at times. and she could put a hand on the knee and say lyndon, you don't

really mean that. there was just an's that came into her. and that relationship of whatever you do in your marriage, in your life and your partnership, that's the real power that i think besides all the things you do in the world at large. but let's start with you and literacy. i mean, i know what you've done. and how did it happen that you chose that? >> i jogged around memorial park one year, knowing george was going to run. granted, nobody else thought he was, but anyway, i tried to think of something. i had worked in hospitals always as a volunteer, and then i decided i should do something that helps the most people and cost the government less money. i didn't want to be controversial. i got problems with that anyway. i wanted to keep it down. it comes naturally. but i picked literacy, because there is no question in my mind and now i've gone into family literacy, because if you have a mother or father or caretaker

who can ride, read, they can follow their child in school and help them. if they can't, then the child doesn't have any inspiration. statistics in our country are shocking. the number of children who do not graduate from high school and who just drop out of the system. and so we're working very hard still. i have turned my foundation over. they don't seem the take it as well as they should, but jeb andorra are doing nationally, and neil and maria who are here are doing texas. and george p. and mandy under them are doing ft. worth and dallas. but they keep saying oh, mom, just sign this letter. i'm glad to do that. but i want them to take over. i'm 80 -- almost 87. and i'm delighted to be here, but george is -- >> [ applause ] >> george needs me. he needs me. his legs have said no more. will not move and it makes a huge difference. what's more, i am loving having him to myself.

i'm loving it. >> about time. >> about time says his cousin. but he's -- he's wonderful, he's loving and sweet. and he adores if the children are all great. neil and maria live across the street. which is certainly something i never would have done. she built a house across the street from us. i loved my mother-in-law. i would no more have lived within six blocks of her. but their children come by. and it's just great. >> i can imagine. >> we love our life. we have a lot of good friends, and he needs me. >> wow. >> so reading for you, the book festivals and eventually afghanistan and burma and speaking. i remember once you said you never thought you would have to give a speech. look at you now. >> i didn't go so much as barb did, thinking one specific topic, because i had been first lady of texas and worked on the number of issues, including, of course, education.

george had run on education as a campaign, you know, policy issue that he campaigned on. so i knew we would spend a lot of time on education. i hoped we would. because i started the -- texas book festival when we were in austin, it just seemed natural and actually james billington, the library of congress came straight to me as soon as george was elected. the very first day that we lived there, i walked downstairs and saw dick mo, the head of the national trust on historic preservation, on his way across the downstairs cross hall towards the west wing to meet with george and -- i told him that i wanted to continue to work on save america's treasures which hillary clinton started. when she was first lady before me, just because of my interest in historical preservation. so just -- and then i think things just sort of presented themselves. obviously women's rights and women's issues became very

important as everyone in the world really turned to look at afghanistan. and saw how women were treated there. and i think american women were really horrified. the idea of a government that would forbid half of their population from being educated was really shocking to us and i noticed, i could tell, american women really felt very strong sense of sisterhood with women in afghanistan and wanted to do whatever they could to help. and so, you know, a lot of other things, too, as well. >> i wish they would show that picture of you with all the saudi arabian ladies. when you went. they had no idea about cancer and women's -- >> breast cancer, yeah. >> you did 100 things. >> i did a lot of things. >> it must be an extraordinary feeling to know you have a pulpit and you can use to it make a difference. >> well, i knew that, obviously,

from watching bar and from lady bird's famous line about the first lady has a podium, and she said for herself and i choose to use it. but i didn't -- i don't think you really, you know, you know it intellectually but don't really understand it emotionally. when i gave the radio address about the taliban and right after that, we were at our ranch when susan was talking about the photographs when i was giving the radio address and went into austin and jenna was in college, a freshman in college in austin. and i went in to see her and went shopping with her at the department store. and the women selling the cosmetics said thank you so much for speaking for the women of afghanistan. that's really when i understood the people really did listen to the first lady. and that, you know, they -- they really did hear me. >> you did a lot, though, in africa with aids.

she and george had the most extraordinary reach for helping others. there are more little george bushes in africa than you can shake a stick at. [ laughter ] we think they are after your father, of course. but we know they're not. but he also -- i mean, they did things for ailments that were curable. i mean, you ought to talk about that because you really did. >> well, in -- that was one of the things that was really very lucky for me is i got to -- george would make the policy with his side. a lot of it i got credit for even though no one wanted to take credit. but it would really be his oils issues. but then coy do travel for that -- for those policy issues. so i went to africa five times, two times with george. the first time and the last time. then -- while we -- while george was president we just went

again, as you all probably, many of you know. because the bush institute just announced our global health initiative in last fall, and then in early december, george and barbara and jenna and henry and i went to africa for george to speak at the international conference on aids in africa in ethiopia. and announced the -- our global health initiative which is adding the testing treatment and vaccine for cervical cancer to the platform that was already set up, the aids platform already set up. [ applause ] >> and you did something for malaria too. >> and then the president's malaria initiative. >> i shouldn't have to be prompting you on these. >> thank you. >> lincoln said one of the great things about the -- sort of the regular routine of the white house being so demanding was that you didn't have time if you got mad at somebody to keep it up.

that you just -- i just have sufficient time for a temper. was that true? if hurtful things were done, or there were things bad happening outside, were you able to just put them aside or did they hurt? >> no. i mean, they -- you know, of course, you didn't like to have your husband be criticized. but i knew from the way the election was in 1992 that what happens in the united states is that our presidents and our first ladies for that matter get characterized in a way they are not a lot of times. and george and i were so miserable in 1992 when president bush lost. it was really the -- terrible for us to see our father who we loved criticized in a way we thought was unfair. so i was very aware that's just part of it. that's just something you put up with. you do. you are right. you are so busy and there are so many issues and so many things you are working on. plus, you know a lot of times better than the people that are criticizing you.

you really do. you know more about the issue than they're -- you know, it's easy to stand from the back row and criticize without really being as informed, obviously, as someone who is briefed every day is. and so i think you just -- i think you are too busy to spend a lot of time on it. i did, i will have to admit, i loved to call bar and commiserate about certain reporters. [ laughter ] >> who will remain nameless. >> that's right. >> speaking of '92 when we lost, and -- our children all went away because they couldn't bear to go through the thing, we went home and we went home on the plane with all -- many friends which was great. we loved that. and i really should mention the day we got elected jenna and barbara plugged air force one's toilet. but other than that -- they were young. but anyway, we went home.