Perhaps because we shared the same first name, and I became a scholar of First Ladies, I was always intrigued by Barbara Bush. As she aged, I thought I might never meet her, but just six months ago my opportunity arrived.
Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, spoke by phone about former first lady Barbara Bush. She also told a story about the time she met Mrs. Bush.
The images of Barbara Bush hugging babies, and perhaps more importantly an adult man with AIDS, sent a powerful message of compassion and understanding during a period of fearfulness about the disease. Her words and actions during the largely unscripted exchange dramatically changed the nation’s understanding and first impression of people infected with HIV. That year “was the heights of the AIDS crisis,” said Mary Kate Cary, a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1992. “It was before any kind of retroviral drug had been invented yet.”
