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• Wednesday, April 18, 2018

  A Final Salute to Mrs. Bush

  by Rena Nessler, commander, Department of New York

  We offer a heart-felt final salute to Barabara Bush, the wife and mother of former U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, both military veterans.

  

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  In a very real way, she was like many of us in New York’s American Legion Family. Raised in Rye, NY, Barbara and George first met at a Christmas dance in 1941. They strarted corresponding and a romance began. After graduating from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., George enlisted in the Navy and trained as a World War ii pilot. Their correspondence was interrupted for a month when George, flying a Grumman Avenger over the Pacific, was shot down and rescued by a submarine. They married in 1945 while he was on leave from the Navy.

  Known as a popular, self-deprecating, and sometimes frankly speaking First Lady, Mrs. Bush was passionate about such causes as literacy and civil rights. And military veterans.

  As the Navy would say, Bravo Zulu, Mrs. Bush!