Her first experience with White House politics came in 1980 when her husband ran against California Gov. Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for president. She sparked a campaign controversy with comments supporting ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and in favor of a woman's right to an abortion, putting her at odds with the conservative wing of the GOP then led by Reagan.



"The personal things should be left out of platforms at conventions," she recalled years later, in a 1992 interview with Time magazine. "You can argue yourself blue in the face, and you're not going to change each other's minds. It's a waste of your time and my time."



Reagan won the nomination and chose George H.W. Bush as his running mate. The ticket went on to win the 1980 and 1984 elections. During those eight years as "second lady," Mrs. Bush began her life in the Washington spotlight and her work raising family literacy.



She founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy with a goal of improving the lives of disadvantaged Americans by boosting literacy among parents and their children. Over nearly three decades, the foundation says, it has raised and provided more than $110 million to support family literacy programs nationwide.

"Focusing on the family is the best place to start to make this country more literate, and I still feel that being more literate will help us solve so many of the other problems facing our society," she wrote in her 1994 memoir. (In addition to two memoirs, her books included two written in the voices of her family dogs, C. Fred and Millie.)

Though she carefully guarded her family's privacy, Mrs. Bush found herself an even more widely recognized public figure after her husband won the 1988 election to succeed Reagan as president.



Her false pearl necklaces sparked a national fashion trend when she wore one to her husband's inauguration in 1989. The pearls became synonymous with Mrs. Bush, who later said she selected them to hide the wrinkles in her neck. The candid admission only bolstered her common sense and down-to-earth image.