17. Barbara Bush
Given the countless thousands of images of Barbara Bush as a beaming, white-haired First Lady and mother of another US president, it is understandably easy to forget that she was once a young woman. Barbara Bush was born Barbara Pierce in New York, to a wealthy family. Her father was the president of the McCall corporation which published the famous women’s magazines Redbook and McCall’s. She met a young George H. W. Bush at a country club dance in Greenwich, Connecticut when she was just 16.
Though both she and her husband were from the east coast, the young Bush family settled in Texas so George could enter the oil business. He eventually started the successful Zapata corporation and soon after was elected to be Republican Party county chairman for Texas’ most popular county. An unsuccessful run for US Senator of Texas followed, with a successful run for US Representative two years later. In 1980, Bush became Ronald Reagan’s vice president, and the rest is history.
As was expected of a woman of her status at the time, Barbara Pierce was a thin and athletic girl. She enjoyed the various sports of the wealthy including tennis and swimming. As the wealthy young daughter of a prominent east coast businessman, she doubtlessly would have had access to the most beautiful clothing and beauty products available at the time which, combined with her free time available for outdoor activities, would have made her an epitome of the tanned, lithe and healthy beauty standard of the time.
