Dina E. Forbes - Laura Bush

Although she is a quiet person by nature, Laura has made many public speeches on subjects ranging from literacy to women's health.

Source: Landov.

Bush's speech at the Republican National Convention was especially significant for two reasons. First, it demonstrated her passion for a cause that she would continue to speak about after she became first lady of the United States: education. Also, it was an example of her willingness to do her best to help others without complaining, even when it involved doing something that made her uncomfortable.

It was not the first speech Laura Bush had ever made, and it would certainly not be the last. Bush has made many speeches about the importance of literacy, the ability to read and write. And she still speaks out on that topic and many others today. She supports projects such as Ready to Read, Ready to Learn, which helps children start reading at an early age. She also speaks out about the No Child Left Behind Act. This program tries to find and use information about the best ways to teach reading.

But no matter how good the projects are, Bush understands that they cannot be effective without a very important component: teachers. Teachers, Bush says, "are helping to shape our children's future and our future. For that we owe them our highest regard, our highest respect." So Bush also promotes projects that recruit people to become quality teachers. The Teach for America program, for example, recruits recent college graduates to teach in inner-city communities and rural areas, where they are needed the most. The Troops to Teachers program helps people in the military become teachers. And the New Teacher Project asks the best professionals in the country to be teachers.

Another issue important to Bush is women's health. She says about women, "We're very quick to take care of our husbands, children, and family, but very slow to take care of ourselves." For this reason, she supports programs that teach people about the risks of heart disease, the number one killer of women. She is also active in educating women about breast cancer.

Laura Bush started out making a difference in her home state, when her husband was governor of Texas. Since she became first lady of the United States, she has been an important force in programs that affect the entire country. But her positive influence has not stopped there: She also tries to help people in other countries throughout the world. In November 2001, Bush became the first first lady in history to record a full presidential radio address. In that radio speech, she told the world about the cruel treatment of women and children by the government in Afghanistan, a country about 7,000 miles away from the United States. She wanted the United States to help the people in Afghanistan who could not help themselves.

This is the story of how a simple, quiet young girl from Texas grew up to be a noteworthy woman whose voice would be heard around the world.

Virtually from the day of her birth, the daughter of Harold and Jenna Welch had a pleasant and calming presence. "She never cried and she was hardly ever sick," says Laura's mother, calling her only child "a happy little kiddo."

Laura Lane Welch was born to Harold and Jenna Welch on November 4, 1946. She was born and raised in Midland, a town in west Texas. Today, almost 100,000 people live in Midland. However, the town was very different when Laura was growing up. She remembers it as "a small town in a vast desert, a place where neighbors had to help each other because any other help was too far away." Midland played an important role in forming the values that Laura would have for the rest of her life. "Midland was a place of family and community, and it had a sense of possibility as big as the west Texas sky," Laura says. "Midland formed value reserves as deep [as] and longer lasting than any of its oil wells."

Two other factors influenced Midland as well: the military and oil. In 1942, the Army Air Force Bombardier Training School, located near Midland, was the world's largest military training facility. Many of the school's cadets needed homes for their wives and children. In addition, many oil companies chose Midland as their home during the 1940s. This combination created a shortage of homes in Midland. Harold, whose father was a builder, realized that he had both the determination and the talent to help solve that problem. Harold worked as a district manager for CIT Credit Corporation, an institution that financed automobile dealerships. But he spent his spare time learning as much as he could about the building business. Eventually he learned so much about the industry that he was able to quit his job at CIT and form a business with a local contractor, even though he had no formal training. Jenna Welch helped keep the business running smoothly by acting as the company's bookkeeper. (Years later, her daughter would also play an important "behind-the-scenes" role to support her own husband's career.) When Laura was born, Jenna insisted on working from home so that she could take care of her only daughter.

Harold and Jenna built a loving home for Laura. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for O, The Oprah Magazine in May 2001, Laura recalled, "I was lucky to have loving parents who made me feel secure, and that has been a huge advantage." The Welch home was a comfortable place for her childhood friends to spend time, also. Jan Donnelly O'Neill, the woman who introduced Laura to her future husband years later, says, "You always loved to hang out at their house. You just always laughed and had a good time sitting down and having Cokes with Laura and her mom and dad."

Harold and Jenna Welch were Democrats, and their daughter continued that family tradition. Early in her relationship with George W. Bush, a staunch Republican, Laura would inform him that she was not very involved in politics and that she was a registered Democrat. But she did not tell him at the time that she had voted for antiwar candidate George McGovern for president in 1972. In casting that vote, she had voted against Richard Nixon, whom George's father, George Bush Sr., had supported.