A champion of children's literacy and AIDS activist: How Barbara Bush used her role as the second woman in US history to be both a wife and mother of a president to bring about change

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Barbara Bush used her role as the first lady of the United States to become a champion of children's literacy and to fight against AIDS.

Bush, who died Tuesday at 92 years old while surrounded by her family, started her lifelong mission to improve the quality of life for children when her own son, Neil Bush, struggled with reading in elementary school. 

Neil said it began when she attended reading day at his school.

'So there's a reading circle and all the kids have a book and they're passing the book kid to kid and they passed it to me and I couldn't read,' he told KHOU. 

According to Neil, his mother was shocked and determined to bring his reading level up. 

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Barbara Bush used her role as the first lady of the United States to become a champion of children's literacy and to fight against AIDS. The former first lady is pictured in 1991 reading to children in Missouri

Bush, who died Tuesday at 92 years old, started her lifelong mission to improve the quality of life for children when her own son, Neil Bush, struggled with reading in elementary school. She's pictured reading to children during a visit to the Capitol Children's Museum

Neil Bush (pictured with his mother in 2005) said it began when she attended reading day at his school. 'So there's a reading circle and all the kids have a book and they're passing the book kid to kid and they passed it to me and I couldn't read,' he said 

According to Neil (far right), his mother was shocked and determined to bring his reading level up. Neil spent Saturdays attending various programs to help him learn to manage his dyslexia

Neil spent Saturdays attending various programs to help him learn to manage his dyslexia.

As first lady - between 1989 to 1993 - Barbara made her main focus literacy and became involved in a number of reading organizations.

She eventually founded the non-profit Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which is based in Florida, to help increase literacy levels nationwide.

It was through Neil's struggle that she realized the alarming statistics of illiteracy in schools. 

The Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation will hold its 24th annual Celebration of Reading on Thursday, April 19, at the Hobby Center. 

'She will be long remembered for her strong devotion to country and family, both of which she served unfailingly well,' President Donald Trump and his wife and First Lady, Melania Trump, said in a statement that noted Bush's championing of literacy 'as a fundamental family value'.

As first lady - between 1989 to 1993 - Barbara made her main focus literacy and became involved in a number of reading organizations. She's pictured reading to children at a hospital in 2003 

She eventually founded the non-profit Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which is based in Florida, to help increase literacy levels nationwide. She's pictured chatting with Big Bird and kids while taping a segment of PBS' Sesame Street for its 21st season in October 1989

She eventually founded the non-profit Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which is based in Florida, to help increase literacy levels nationwide. She's pictured in 2011 reading to children at the Maine Medical Center 

Not only was literacy a huge focus for Bush, she also took on issues such as homelessness, teenage pregnancy, and AIDS.

Paul Brandus with West Wing Reports reminded Bush's admirers of her commitment to these issues when he tweeted a photo of Bush in 1989 on Tuesday. 

'A First Lady has the power to make people think. In 1989 Barbara Bush visited a Washington hospice where abandoned infants with the AIDS virus were being cared for,' the tweet read. 

'Some folks were ignorant and thought you could get AIDS from touching someone. Mrs. Bush hugged and kissed the kids,' Brandus added in the tweet. 

Bush tried to make sure the public understood that AIDS wasn't contracted through hugs and handshakes at a time when many were worried that if they touched someone with the disease they would contract it. 

In her 1994 autobiography, 'Barbara Bush: A Memoir' Bush spoke about another visit with a young man who had the AIDS virus. 

'It was a wrenching visit. Besides having trouble finding housing and medical care, they all had personal problems. I especially remember a young man who told us that he had been asked to leave his church studies when it was discovered he had AIDS,' she wrote. 

'His parents also had disowned him, and he said he longed to be hugged again by his mother. A poor substitute, I hugged that darling young man and did it again in front of the cameras. But what he really needed was family,' Bush added. 

Bush also took on issues such as homelessness, teenage pregnancy, and AIDS. Paul Brandus with West Wing Reports reminded Bush's admirers of her commitment to these issues when he tweeted a photo of Bush in 1989 holding a child who was born with AIDS 

Bush tried to make sure the public understood that AIDS wasn't contracted through hugs and handshakes at a time when many were worried that if they touched someone with the disease they would contract it

Princess Diana had done something similar at New York's Harlem Hospital. Bush and the princess also visited an AIDS patient in London's Middlesex Hospital in 1991

Bush was the only woman to see her husband and son both sworn in as president.

She was the wife of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, and mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush.

The Bush family had said in a statement on Sunday that she was in failing health, had decided not to seek further medical treatment and instead would focus on 'comfort care'.

According to some media reports, Bush had been battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart problems in recent years.

Bush was dubbed The Silver Fox by her husband and children. She was known for her snow-white hair and for being fiercely protective of her family.

She was first lady when her husband was in the White House from 1989 to 1993. Her son, Republican George Walker Bush, triumphed in the disputed 2000 US election and was president from 2001 to 2009. 

The Bushes celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January.

Bush had an independent streak and could be sharp-tongued. As first lady, she promoted literacy and reading but said she was more interested in running a household than helping her husband run the country. 

Bush was the only woman to see her husband and son both sworn in as president. Bush was dubbed The Silver Fox by her husband and children. She was known for her snow-white hair and for being fiercely protective of her family

She was the wife of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, and mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush

The Bushes had six children. A daughter, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953 at age 3. Barbara Bush's hair began to turn prematurely white after the shock of the girl's death. In addition to George W. and Jeb, the other Bush children are sons Neil and Marvin and daughter Dorothy

She discouraged speculation that she wielded political influence with the president like her predecessors - Ronald Reagan's wife, Nancy Reagan, and Jimmy Carter's wife, Rosalynn Carter.

'I don't fool around with his office and he doesn't fool around with my household,' she once said.

'She'll speak her mind but only to him,' said Jack Steel, a longtime Bush aide.

The only other woman to be both wife and mother of US presidents was Abigail Adams, the first lady from 1797 to 1801. 

She was a major influence on husband John Adams, the nation's second president, but died before son John Quincy Adams was elected president in 1824.

Another of Bush's sons, Jeb, who served as governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and she campaigned for him before he dropped out of the race.

The Bushes had six children. A daughter, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953 at age 3. Barbara Bush's hair began to turn prematurely white after the shock of the girl's death. In addition to George W. and Jeb, the other Bush children are sons Neil and Marvin and daughter Dorothy.

The Bushes married on January 6, 1945, and Barbara set up households in numerous cities as her husband moved from being a Texas oilman to being a member of Congress, Republican Party leader, US envoy to China and the United Nations and head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Barbara Bush generally refused to discuss publicly her personal views on controversial topics such as abortion, an issue on which she was believed to differ from her husband's more conservative stance.

A year younger than her husband, she was born Barbara Pierce on June 8, 1925, and grew up in Rye, New York. Her father was Marvin Pierce, publisher of McCall's magazine

She was home from boarding school in 1941 when she met her future husband at a Christmas party in Connecticut. She dropped out of prestigious Smith College to marry Bush, then a young naval aviator home on leave from World War Two

But during her husband's 1992 re-election race, which he lost to Democrat Bill Clinton, she told reporters that abortion and homosexuality were 'personal things' that should be left out of political conventions and party platforms. 'I don't think that's healthy for the country when anyone thinks their morals are better than anyone else's,' she said.

Opinion polls often showed her popularity as first lady exceeding her husband's as president. 'I don't threaten anyone,' she said. 'That's because I'm everyone's grandma.'

A year younger than her husband, she was born Barbara Pierce on June 8, 1925, and grew up in Rye, New York. Her father was Marvin Pierce, publisher of McCall's magazine.

She was home from boarding school in 1941 when she met her future husband at a Christmas party in Connecticut. She dropped out of prestigious Smith College to marry Bush, then a young naval aviator home on leave from World War Two.

George Bush said marrying Barbara, whom he called Bar, was 'the thing I did right'. 

But the marriage nearly did not take place. While they were engaged, his bomber was shot down by the Japanese in the Pacific in 1944. He bailed out and was rescued in the ocean by a submarine crew, but his crewmates died.

'When you're 18, you think everybody is invincible. ... I mean, that was stupid - but I knew he was going to come home. He was Superman,' she told CNN in 2003.

After leaving the White House, she found time to write her memoirs. In 1990, she authored 'Millie's Book,' a humorous look at the adventures of the family's English springer spaniel in the White House.

In one of their last public appearances, the Bushes attended the 2017 Super Bowl in Houston with George performing the ceremonial pregame coin flip. 

Only a few days before, the couple had been released from a hospital where George had been treated for pneumonia and Barbara for bronchitis.