Barbara Bush, the witty, gregarious matriarch of a political dynasty that propelled two of its members to the White House and dominated Republican politics for decades, has died after a series of recent hospitalizations. She was 92.

A Bush family spokesman said Bush passed away peacefully in her home, surrounded by loved ones.

In a statement Sunday, the spokesman, Jim McGrath, said the former first lady had decided not to seek additional medical treatment and instead sought comfort care at home.

Barbara Pierce was born in New York City in 1925, the third child of Pauline and Marvin Pierce, an executive in the magazine industry. She grew up with her family in Rye, New York, near the Connecticut border. When she was 16, she met George Herbert Walker Bush at a school dance in Greenwich, Connecticut. After several months of courtship, George Bush invited her to his senior prom.

"After the dance, [he] walked me home and, in front of the world, leaned down and kissed me on the cheek," Barbara Bush wrote in her 1994 memoir. "I floated into my room and kept the poor girl I was rooming with awake all night while I made her listen to how Poppy Bush was the greatest living human on the face of the earth."

In 1943, George Bush became the Navy's youngest pilot while Barbara enrolled in Smith College. The couple exchanged letters over the course of George's deployment in the Pacific, until one day Barbara received a letter from another pilot saying George's plane had been shot down. For three days, George's fate was unclear, but eventually the Navy alerted Barbara that he had in fact survived. Two of his fellow crewmates, however, did not.

The couple wed on Jan. 6, 1945, and would go on to have four sons -- George W., Jeb, Marvin, and Neil -- a daughter, Doro, 17 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. The Bush family's second child, Robin, died in 1953 at the age of three after a battle with leukemia.

As a young couple, the Bush's moved to Texas, where George Bush built his oil business. Their settled life in Texas changed when George Bush was elected to Congress in 1966. The family headed to Washington, D.C. -- one of numerous moves that Barbara Bush organized during their marriage, including one to Beijing, so he could represent the U.S. as ambassador to China.

During her time at the White House, the former first lady's signature cause was family literacy focusing on bringing awareness to early childhood education and adult literacy for parents. She later launched the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy during her husband's presidency.

Following their time in politics, the couple would later call Kennebunkport, Maine, one of their homes during their retirement years, dividing time between the Bush compound in the coastal town and their home in Houston, Texas.

Bush had recently stayed out largely out of public view, briefly lending a hand campaigning for her son Jeb Bush during the 2016 presidential election, despite decreeing in 2013 that the country had "had enough Bushes" in the White House after both her husband and eldest son's successful presidential bids.

During the campaign trail, Mrs. Bush expressed disbelief about some of the things then-candidate Trump had said about women in an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell.

"I mean, unbelievable. I don't know how women can vote for someone who said what he said about Megyn Kelly," she said. "And we knew what he meant too!"

Mrs. Bush will be buried at the George HW Bush Presidential library on the campus of Texas A & M.

This is a developing story.