Over the last century, each first lady has played some sort of political role and Laura Bush is no exception.
Between 2001 and 2009, she anchored initiatives involving education and women’s health, and her work has continued since her husband’s presidency.
Laura has embraced the opportunity to propel her ideas forward through post-presidency programs.
Laura, 66, realizes that the George W. Bush Presidential Center can be a vehicle in advancing these ideas and she’s taken every opportunity in helping the center gain momentum during its construction at her alma mater.
She is in charge of the design committee and has had a significant voice in the construction, landscape and decoration of the center.
“She has a very good eye,” Robert A.M. Stern, the chief architect for the Bush Center, told The Dallas Morning News, “She gives the architect his own space.”
This isn’t unprecedented. Lady Bird Johnson was heavily involved in the design of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library at the University of Texas at Austin.
The LBJ Library is unique among presidential libraries in that the archives aren’t hidden in storage anywhere, but tower above the main foyer of the library.
“Mrs. Johnson believed that all the archives in the library should be seen by the public,” Laura Eggert, the volunteer and visitor coordinator at LBJ Library, said.
Since Johnson died just two years after the opening of his library, his wife took a significant role in operating the library.
She worked closely with the director of the library until her death in 2007. She was particularly involved in the hiring of employees.
“On Lady Bird’s desk at the library, there’s a nameplate that reads ‘Can Do’, because Johnson’s presidency always looked for ‘can-do’ people,” Tina Houston, the deputy director of the library, said. “The people who work at the library are can-do people, because Lady Bird hired most of us.”
Laura Bush, in addition to helping design and operate the center, has been working to create ties and joint programs with SMU.
Mrs. Bush has worked particularly closely with the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education in creating programs with the Education Reform branch of the Bush Institute.
“SMU is pretty unique in that the faculty and administration are kind of like a big family,” David Chard, dean of the Simmons School, said, “And there are people at the Bush Center who are very similar, and want to interact with the university.”
In addition to her work with education, she’s also helped launch a fellowship program that offers Egyptian women the opportunity to learn from SMU professors and faculty about leadership in their particular fields.
“President Bush and I are proud to stand by women,” Bush said during an event on International Women’s Day. “We’re working hard to improve social and economic opportunity for women and girls.”
Bush, who became a grandmother on April 13, has said repeatedly that her work on women’s rights is to strengthen the future generation’s opinion of females.
Bush’s work throughout the construction of the center will be on show to guests of the dedication Thursday and to the public May 1.
