Former President George H.W. Bush's wife, Barbara Bush, was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. Mrs. Bush is the mother of President and former Texas Governor George W. Bush, as well as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Barbara Bush had open heart surgery to replace her aortic valve on March 4, 2009, at Methodist Hospital in Texas. A week before the surgery, Mrs. Bush had experienced shortness of breath. The surgery took about two-and-a-half hours. Her surgeon said the surgery went "extremely well" and she is expected to fully recover.CNews: Barbara Bush has heart surgery (March 4, 2009)

Barbara Bush was raised in Rye, New York. Her father, Marvin Pierce, was the president of the McCall Corporation, which publishes Redbook and McCall's. The Pierces were related to former president Franklin Pierce; Barbara's great-great-grandfather, James, was his fourth cousin.

While first lady, Mrs. Bush worked with the White House Historical Association, raising $25 million for the White House Endowment Fund. She was also very active in literacy issues, and has since founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy to continue her work.

Since leaving the White House, Mrs. Bush has also engendered her fair share of controversy by making comments that seemed frivolous about topics such as television news coverage of the Iraq War and the refugees of Hurricane Katrina.

"I can't say it, but it rhymes with rich."—Regarding Geraldine Ferraro, 1984

On Good Morning America in 2003, commenting on television news: "I watch none. He [former President Bush] sits and listens and I read books, because I know perfectly well that, don't take offense, that 90 percent of what I hear on television is supposition, when we're talking about the news. And he's not as understanding of my pettiness about that. But why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or that or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that, and watch him suffer."

• FOXNews: Barbara Bush Recovering After Heart Surgery (March 4, 2009)

• Internet Weekly: Ma Bush's Killer Brood

• Humor Database: Barbara Bush's View of Harriet Miers

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