President George Walker Bush
Compiled
by D. A. Sharpe
In the same year that George Walker Bush was born, Sir
Winston Churchill, then Prime Minister of England, delivered his famous "Iron
Curtain" speech at Westminster
College in Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946. Sir Winston is the eleventh
cousin, once removed to United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, my
half eighth cousin.
Source:http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html
President George W. Bush is a tenth
cousin, eight times removed to the first President of the United States, George
Washington, who is my 26th cousin, seven times removed. So, President Bush is a distant
cousin of a distant cousin of mine!
It was the great honor and pleasure
that my wife, Suzanne Margaret Boggess Sharpe, and I attended both of President
Bush's Inaugural Ceremonies at being sworn in as President for a four-year term
in Washington, D. C. Both
occasions were on January 20, 2001 and 2005.
We attended various Presidential Balls on those occasions which were
social occasions at which the President and his First Lady, Laura Bush, were
present for token appearances.
Back in 1993 when President William
Clinton appointed Texas Senator Lloyd Bentson to be
Secretary of the Treasury, that made vacant one of the two seats of the United
States Senate for Texas. One of
our favorite Texas politicians, Kay Bailey Hutchison, ran for that vacancy and
won! My wife, Suzanne, was a
member of Ms. Hutchison's campaign committee in Dallas County, Texas, which led
to us attending the victory celebration on election night on that first Tuesday
in March1993. The evening was
starting slowly in a large room with no chairs. As the Hutchisons were delayed
arriving, many of the attending crowd began to sit on the floor in circles,
chatting, celebrating and enjoying the evening in a less formal mode. A man sat down next to me and was
quite celebrative, hugging me and rejoicing over tasting victory following the
bitter defeat in 1992 of President George Herbert Walker Bush. At the time, that man was the
President of the Texas Ranger
profession baseball team there in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but he later
would become the Governor of Texas, then President of the United States. Little did I know that seven years
from that time, the man hugging me on the floor, George Walker Bush, would
become the President of the United States!
"George W. Bush is the 43rd
President of the United States. He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001,
re-elected on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on January 20,
2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush served for 6 years as the 46th
Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship
and as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the
principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families, and
local control.
"President Bush was born on
July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Midland and Houston,
Texas. He received a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University in 1968,
and then served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air
National Guard. President Bush received a Master of Business Administration
from Harvard Business School in 1975. Following graduation, he moved back to
Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his
father's successful 1988 Presidential campaign, President Bush assembled the
group of partners who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989.
On November 8, 1994, President Bush was elected Governor of Texas.
"Since becoming President of the United States in
2001, President Bush has worked with the Congress to create an ownership
society and build a future of security, prosperity, and opportunity for all
Americans. He signed into law tax relief that helps workers keep more of their
hard-earned money, as well as the most comprehensive education reforms in a
generation, the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This legislation is ushering in a new era of
accountability, flexibility, local control, and more choices for parents,
affirming our Nation's fundamental belief in the promise of every child.
President Bush has also worked to improve healthcare and modernize Medicare,
providing the first-ever prescription drug benefit for seniors; increase homeownership,
especially among minorities; conserve our environment; and increase military
strength, pay, and benefits. Because President Bush believes the strength of
America lies in the hearts and souls of our citizens, he has supported programs
that encourage individuals to help their neighbors in need.
"On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists
attacked our Nation. Since then, President Bush has taken unprecedented steps
to protect our homeland and create a world free from terror. He is grateful for
the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform and their
families. The President is confident that by helping build free and prosperous
societies, our Nation and our friends and allies will succeed in making America
more secure and the world more peaceful.
"President Bush is married to
Laura Welch Bush, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters,
Barbara and Jenna. The Bush family also includes two dogs, Barney and Miss
Beazley, and a cat,Willie."
Source:http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html
His Presidential Library was built
and established on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
Texas. George and Laura have
residences in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas and on a ranch in
central Texas. There is one last
story about George Bush that is meaningful to our family.
My father-in-law, Thomas Shelton Boggess, Jr., was the
first Boy Scout to earn the rank of Eagle Scout in his home of Noxubee County,
Mississippi back in 1926. Since
then there have been descendants named after him, down to his great grandson, Thomas
Shelton Boggess V. What is
unique is that all four of them have earned the Eagle Scout award.
As Thomas Shelton Boggess V was getting his award, his
father, learning that President Bush had an
admiration for Boy Scouts, wrote a letter to the Whitehouse to see if anything
special could be noted. It was
discovered that there have been sever four generation Eagle Scouts, but none of
the complete sets of four were
alive at the same time. Our
Boggess Eagles were the only four generation set that could be located. This was in 2008. All four of the Boggess Scouts were
residing in Arizona then, the President made arrangements
for them to meet him at the Phoenix Airport as he was flying in for a speech. He met them out on the tarmac, and
posed in a photograph with them. Later,
he sent an autographed photo later. What
an honor!
Compiled by:
Dwight Albert (D. A.) Sharpe
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712