Sometimes when I interview celebrities, they are exactly the way I thought they would be.
And sometimes, a celebrity would surprise me a little. I was surprised a little by former First Lady Barbara Bush, wife of George H.W. Bush, our 41st president.
When I met her in 1994, when she published her Memoir, I was unprepared for how simple, straightforward, and folksy Mrs. Bush was. It was like talking to my mom or one of her friends over a cup of coffee.
It’s important to remember that Barbara Bush holds a rare distinction in American history: she is only the second woman, behind Abigail Adams, to be the wife of one president and the mother of another.
Now, one thing you will hear us refer to in this interview is a small plane crashing into the White House lawn. It happened just a couple of days before our interview, when a young man stole a light plane and crash landed on the South Lawn.
Oh, and also, you’ll hear why Barbara Bush quit smoking.
So here now, from 1994, Barbara Bush.
Barbara Bush died in April 2018. She was 92. George H.W. Bush died seven montrhs later at age 94.