Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Bush's mother dies after suffering a stroke Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 15:30:30 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD Bush's mother dies after suffering a stroke \BY Frank J. Murray \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES President Bush's 91-year-old mother, Dorothy Walker Bush, died last night, just hours after the president rushed to her Connecticut bedside for a final visit after the last in a series of strokes. Mr. Bush and his daughter, Doro Koch, spent 30 minutes at Mrs. Bush's Greenwich, Conn., home before returning to Washington at 12:40 p.m. in a nine-passenger military jet. It was not clear whether the president, who was extremely close to his mother, was able to speak with her there. Mr. Bush returned to Washington to keep an afternoon appointment receiving credentials from foreign diplomats. At the end of the diplomatic ceremony on the State Floor of the White House, the president was handed a note notifying him of his mother's death, said White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. Mrs. Bush died at 5:05 p.m., about 4 1/2 hours after Mr. Bush arrived back in Washington. The White House received the news in a phone call from the president's only sister, Nancy Ellis, who was in Boston. Deputy press secretary Judy Smith said the president had no plans to return to Connecticut last night. She said he still planned to spend the weekend at Camp David. The president will attend private funeral services Monday in Greenwich, Mr. Fitzwater said in announcing the death. Mr. Bush's father, Prescott, who represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1962, died Oct. 8, 1972. President-elect Bill Clinton told reporters last night outside the Hay-Adams Hotel that he had just called Mr. Bush to offer his condolences. "She was one remarkable woman, his mother," Mr. Clinton said. "Hillary and Chelsea and I met her and spent some time with her in 1983 when the governors met in Maine. Then-Vice President Bush hosted us. I know she was very proud of her son and I think she had a lot to do with him. This is a sad and difficult day for him." The president's mother had been frail and under full-time nursing care at the family home in Connecticut but often was well enough to visit Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Maine, where she watched picnics and family boating from her wheelchair. First word of the latest health crisis came early yesterday when Mr. Bush suddenly flew to her side at 8:35 a.m. "She had another stroke," Mr. Fitzwater said when he returned, without explaining why she remained at home instead of going to a hospital. "His mother is not at all well," first lady Barbara Bush announced later at a White House swearing-in ceremony for the board of the National Institute for Literacy. "He went to be with her." The president and his brother Prescott Bush Jr. were the only ones among Mrs. Bush's five children who reached her bedside yesterday. She is also survived by Mrs. Ellis, Jonathan Bush and William "Bucky" Bush. Mr. Bush was away from the White House for just four hours, accompanied only by his daughter, personal physician Dr. Burton Lee, a military aide, Mr. Fitzwater and Secret Service agents. The usual press contingent was left behind on this highly personal trip. The president often talks of his mother's influence on his public style and her constant advice that he be modest and considerate in public life, sometimes revealing current anecdotes that sound like a mother chastising a small child. "In other ways, too, he and my mother embodied the Puritan ethic in the best sense of the term," Mr. Bush said of his parents. "Fifty years later, Mother still stays on the alert for anything that sounds like 'braggadocio' coming from one of her children," Mr. Bush wrote in his 1987 autobiography, "Looking Forward." "You're talking about yourself too much, George," she told him after reading a newspaper report of a campaign speech. When he explained he had to discuss his qualifications, she said, "Well, I understand that, but try to restrain yourself." In a 90th-birthday interview, Mrs. Bush said it "feels very nice to have my son in the White House. I have lots of confidence in him." Mrs. Bush was the daughter of George Herbert Walker, for whom amateur golf's Walker Cup is named. It is awarded to the winner of team competition between the United States and a British-Irish team. "Dad taught us about duty and service. Mother taught us about dealing with life on a personal basis, relating to other people," Mr. Bush said, describing how she would read the Bible at the breakfast table. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM