When we think about the Bush family we think of a famous political family from Texas. However, the Bush family story began in New York.
George Herbert Walker Bush, who was born in Massachusetts, met his wife, Barba Pierce Bush, in Rye, NY.
They met at a dance in 1941 when Barbara was 16-years-old while she was on Christmas break from school and the two entered into a long-distance relationship. They got engaged before George left the U.S. to serve as a naval pilot in World War II.
They were married in 1945 at the First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York. They are the longest married couple in U.S. presidential history, having been married for 73 years, according to Politico.
The former president celebrated this milestone with a post of the couple on Instagram.
“Seventy years ago this very day, Barbara Pierce of Rye, NY made me the happiest, and luckiest, man on earth,” the former president recently tweeted.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter hold the second place title for being married 68 years. John and Abigail Adams were married for 54 years.
“Happy 70th anniversary to the longest-married presidential couple in history,” their eldest son former President George Walker Bush wrote on Instagram.
The Bushes have five children George W. Bush, former Florida Gov. Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Their daughter Robin died at the age of 4 due to leukemia.
They have 17 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. But their marriage milestone was almost never met. George was rescued in the Pacific Ocean by a U.S. submarine after his plane was shot down by the Japanese in 1944. The other two on the aircraft didn’t survive.
The couple also celebrated a more recent milestone. As of November 2017, George became the oldest living president in the U.S. history at the age of 93-years-old and 166 days.
He surpassed the previous record which was held by Gerald Ford who lived 93-years and 165 days before he died.
Ronald Regan is the third-oldest living president and lived 93 years and 120 days before passed away. Though George had a few health scares in the last year, including hospitalizations for chronic pneumonia and bronchitis, he joined four other living presidents for a hurricane relief concert in Texas after Hurricane Harvey.
George is the 41st President of the United States and served from 1989 to 1993. Prior to that, he was the 43 Vice President of the United States and served in that role from 1981 to 1989.
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