Jenna Welch, whose $8,000 loss in the Enron scandal was invoked by her son-in-law, President George W. Bush, to distance himself from his energy company connections, died on Friday in Texas. She was 99.

Her daughter, former First Lady Laura Bush, confirmed the death on Instagram, saying her mother had been “a true daughter of West Texas who loved her family, books, and nature.”

Her granddaughter and namesake, Jenna Bush Hager, a correspondent for the NBC show “Today,” said on Twitter that Mrs. Welch, a self-educated naturalist, “taught me how to slow down and appreciate every bird, and every plant in West Texas.”

Mrs. Welch was rarely in the limelight during the Bush presidency. She lived in Midland, Tex., where she had moved with her husband, Harold, after World War II.