| Interment Location | Visited | Sequence in Graves I Have Visited |
|---|---|---|
| College Station, TX | March 12, 2019 | 39th President visited; 42nd Vice President visited |
In November 2018, nearly five years after I completed my goal of visiting the graves of every U.S. president and vice president, George H.W. Bush — who held both posts — passed away. He was laid to rest at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, where I paid my respects in March 2019.
The 41st president is interred alongside his wife of seventy-three years, Barbara, and their daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953 at age three. Robin was relocated from her original grave in Greenwich, Connecticut, to College Station in 2000. The rectangular Bush plot is enclosed by a fence, the gate to which is kept locked. My father and I attempted to entreat Bush Library director Warren Finch to have the gate briefly opened for us, but Mr. Finch understandably did not feel comfortable doing so because of the recency of the president’s and first lady’s deaths.
George Bush is buried in the middle of the gated plot, in line with a large presidential seal that decorates the ground. On November 25, 2017, Bush surpassed Gerald Ford as the longest-lived U.S. president. The following June, he became the first former chief executive to live to age 94. Jimmy Carter broke Bush’s longevity record on March 22, 2019.
In his retirement, Bush wore dress socks with designs that celebrated events, causes, characters, or people, such as World Down Syndrome Day, Superman, the American flag, and literacy. Per his spokesperson, Jim McGrath, Bush was laid to rest sporting a pair that reflected his service as a naval aviator in World War II. The inscription on the cross planted at the head of Bush’s grave denotes his military service as well.
Fast Facts
Born: June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts
Spouse: Barbara Pierce Bush (m. 1945-2018)
Military Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade — U.S. Naval Reserve
Political Affiliation: Republican Party
House Tenure: 1967-1971
United Nations Ambassadorship: 1971-1973
C.I.A. Directorship: 1976-1977
Vice Presidential Tenure: 1981-1989 under Ronald Reagan
Presidential Tenure: 1989-1993
Vice President: Dan Quayle
Presidential Medal of Freedom: Awarded by Barack Obama (2011)
Died: November 30, 2018 in Houston, Texas
Cause of Death: Parkinson’s Disease
Age: 94
Last Words: “‘I love you, too.”
Interment: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, Texas
"I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light. This is my mission, and I will complete it."
- George H.W. Bush
August 18, 1988 in his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana
George Herbert Walker Bush was one of four U.S. presidents whose life began in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The house where he was born, at 173 Adams Street in Milton, is no longer in the possession of the Bush family, but it remains a private residence. On the corner of Adams and Hutchinson Street, a rock-mounted plaque notes the birth of the 41st chief executive in the abutting dwelling.
Prescott and Dorothy Walker Bush relocated their family from Milton, Massachusetts, to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1925. They spent their early years in Greenwich living in a stucco house at 11 Stanwich Road, which they purchased for $14,000. In 1931 the Bushes relocated to a more spacious home at 15 Grove Lane, pictured here. It remained Bush property until it was sold in 1963.
These artifacts are part of the George Bush Presidential Library’s exhibit on its namesake’s World War II naval service. The accompanying exhibit label describes them as, “[t]he K-20 aerial camera used by Lt. George Bush on some of his first missions in the Pacific when he handled photographic assignments, along with camera case and film canisters.”
After his service in World War II concluded in 1945, George Bush moved with his wife, Barbara, to New Haven, Connecticut. The 21-year-old former Navy pilot utilized the G.I. Bill and attended Yale University. In her 1994 memoir, former First Lady Barbara Bush wrote, “We lived in three different places the two and a half years George was at Yale. The first was a shotgun apartment on Chapel Street, a tiny, adorable place we loved.” According to apartments.com, the former Bush residence at 1275 Chapel Street was built in 1900.
Per Barbara Bush’s memoir, she and George moved out of their apartment at 1275 Chapel Street in New Haven, Connecticut, because she was pregnant with their first child, the future 43rd U.S. president. “The Chapel Street landlord liked dogs, but not babies,” Mrs. Bush wrote. The expectant couple relocated to an apartment on the second floor of this house at the corner of Edwards and Whitney streets as George continued his studies at Yale University. According to apartments.com, the former Bush residence at 281 Edwards Street was constructed in 1910.
The third and final place in New Haven, Connecticut, where Barbara and George H.W. Bush lived was at 37 Hillhouse Avenue. They shared the building with several other families. The addition of their first born child — George W. Bush — makes 37 Hillhouse Avenue one of the rare structures where multiple U.S. presidents have resided at the same time. After the elder George graduated from Yale University in 1948, the Bush family relocated to Texas. Today the Hillhouse Ave structure is home to Yale’s Office of LGBTQ Resources.
Having already established himself as an oilman, Bush had an “itch” to branch out and pursue public office. This image shows part of an exhibit that delves into Bush’s first forays into politics. His successful 1963 bid for the chairmanship of the Harris County Republican Party was followed by a victory in the GOP primary for a U.S. senate seat in 1964. In the November general election, though, Bush was defeated by Democrat Ralph Yarborough, the incumbent. In his concession statement, Bush lamented, “I have been trying to think whom we could blame for this and regretfully conclude that the only one I can blame is myself.” The Bush Library commentates, “He was unfairly labeled as a right-wing extremist by the liberals and as a liberal by the conservatives, prompting Bush to comment, ‘Labels are for cans.”
This photograph I took at the Bush Library shows a collection of images and text related to the Texan’s role as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. The black and white picture toward the right side documents Bush being sworn in by Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart on February 26, 1971, while Barbara Bush and President Richard Nixon look on. A piece published in the New York Times criticized Bush’s appointment, proclaiming, “There seems to be nothing in his record that qualifies him for this highly important position.” The newspaper’s negative assessment “got my competitive instincts going,” Bush later said. “They laid down a challenge; I was determined to prove them wrong.”
Many presidential libraries exhibit remnants of the Berlin Wall, which began to come down on November 9, 1989. Since the barrier was dismantled during George Bush’s administration, it is appropriate that the display at his library is the most dynamic of the group. Statues of five horses leap over the toppled structure, symbolizing the restored freedom of Germans who for 28 years were barred from moving across the east-west divide. The sculptures were created by artist Veryl Goodnight and dedicated on October 11, 1997.
The Bush Library contains a replica of the Oval Office — as many presidential libraries do — but it stands alone in having a recreation of the office at Camp David, the presidential retreat located in Frederick County, Maryland. Commander Joe Camp, who was in charge of the site from 1991 to 1994, recalled after George Bush’s death that “it wouldn’t be uncommon for President Bush and his family to visit the camp […] three weekends out of the month.” Camp David was a place where the president could relax, as well as engage in important work. In June 1990, the retreat was the setting of a summit between Bush and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. Bush hosted a dinner party for Gorbachev and pitched horseshoes with him. The leaders’ diplomatic talks consisted of topics such as the reunification of East and West Germany, biological weapons development, antisemitism in emigration policy, and the Soviet Union’s economic blockade of Lithuania.
Signage next to this artifact at the Texan’s library reads, “Probably the most significant of the gifts presented to President Bush by the people of Kuwait was the Gate of Kuwait. Made of teak, studded with domed nails, and elaborately carved, such doors were once the primary access to the walled homes of Kuwait’s leading citizens. Over one hundred years old, this door is framed with plates bearing the names of American servicemen and women who were killed in the Gulf War.” The sign also conveys that the door’s “inscription cites the old Kuwaiti proverb: ‘When a man gives you the key to his home it means you are the best and most valuable friend to him; when a man gives you the door of his home it means that you are one of his family.’ A gift of great friendship, the Gate of Kuwait symbolizes the gratitude of the Kuwaiti people to President George Bush and recognizes the Americans who sacrificed so much to secure their freedom.”
George Bush first jumped out of an aircraft in September 1944 as a Naval Reserve lieutenant, when his torpedo bomber was shot down by enemy fighters. Fulfilling a promise to himself that he would jump out of an airplane for fun someday, Bush took to skydiving as a hobby in his retirement, often to celebrate his birthdays. He executed a solo jump for his 75th birthday in 1999 and made tandem jumps for his 80th, 85th, and 90th trips around the sun. “Just because you’re an old guy, you don’t have to sit around drooling in the corner,” he said in 2009. “Get out and do something. Get out and enjoy life.” The polychromatic parachute pictured here brought Bush safely down to earth in March 1997, his first leap since he escaped death during World War II. He made the 12,500-foot jump over the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Click here to watch the Associated Press’s archival footage of the 1997 excursion.
The Bush Library displays several pairs of socks worn by the 41st president in his twilight years. The stockings shown in this picture are decorated with colorful book stacks. The former chief executive wore this pair in tribute to his wife at her funeral on April 21, 2018. Barbara Bush was an author and an advocate for family literacy.
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
@kdgravehunter. “After his service in World War II concluded.” Instagram, August 16, 2021. Accessed April 30, 2023. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSps_V7AOIW/.
@kdgravehunter. “Per Barbara Bush’s memoir.” Instagram, August 17, 2021. Accessed April 30, 2023. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrPvE7AJCm/.
@kdgravehunter. “The third and final place in New Haven, Connecticut.” Instagram, August 17, 2021. Accessed April 30, 2023. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSsWQq-gfvA/.
Finch, Warren. “Mourning the Death of George H. W. Bush.” In Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, edited by Lindsay M. Chervinsky and Matthew R. Costello, 271-291. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2023.
“George H.W. Bush 1988 Acceptance Speech.” C-SPAN video, 1:23:56. August 18, 1988. https://www.c-span.org/video/?3848-1/george-hw-bush-1988-acceptance-speech.
Hoffman, David and Don Oberdorfer. “Summit Talks Conclude, ‘Problems’ Remain.” Washington Post. June 3, 1990. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/03/summit-talks-conclude-problems-remain/43f033fc-8972-443d-8879-d8c9e6c57352/.
Lowry, Rich. “The Trump GOP Isn’t as Different as You Think.” Politico. August 26, 2020. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/the-trump-gop-isnt-as-different-as-you-think-402753.
Scott, Monica. “Camp David Commander remembers George H.W. Bush as “genuine statesman.” MLive.com. December 4, 2018. https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2018/12/camp_david_commander_remembers.html.
