Pauline Robinson Bush

Pauline Robinson Bush
Robin Bush sitting on porch steps in Greenwich, Connecticut, in June 1953.[1]
Born (1949-12-20)December 20, 1949
Compton, California, U.S.
Died October 11, 1953(1953-10-11) (aged 3)
New York City, U.S.
Cause of death Leukemia
Resting place Putnam Cemetery (1953–2000);
George Bush Presidential Library (since 2000)
Parent(s)
Family Bush

Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (December 20, 1949 – October 11, 1953) was the second child and elder daughter of President of the United States George H. W. Bush and his wife, First Lady Barbara Bush. Born in California, her family soon relocated to Texas, where Robin lived most of her life.

At the age of 3, Robin was diagnosed with advanced leukemia. Being given very little time to live, her parents flew her to New York City for treatment, where she spent the next six months. Despite their efforts, she died two months before her fourth birthday. Her death was a devastating blow for her parents; eventually, they overcame their grief and came to remember her fondly. Her death prompted them to establish a foundation for leukemia research.

Life

Barbara Bush with Robin and George W., in Texas, October 1950.

Then an oil field equipment salesman for Dresser Industries, George H. W. Bush lived in various places around the United States with his wife, Barbara (née Pierce), and their young son, George W.[2] In 1949, they moved to Compton, California; by then, Barbara was already pregnant with the couple's second child.[3] On September 23, 1949, Pauline Robinson Pierce, Barbara's mother, was killed in a freak car accident, which also injured her father, Marvin.[4][5] Since she was very late into the pregnancy, Marvin advised Barbara not to make the journey to New York, so as not to hurt the baby.[6]

On December 20, 1949, Barbara delivered a baby girl, whom she named Pauline Robinson Bush, after her late mother.[4] Initially, the child's intended name was Pauline Pierce Bush, until George H. W.'s mother pointed out that her initials would be P. P. Bush, which "would never do".[7] From birth, the little girl was referred to as Robin, so much so that, later in life, Barbara would comment that Robin's siblings probably do not even remember her real name.[8] Barbara and Robin were brought home from the hospital on Christmas Day. On this occasion, Marvin Pierce gave the family a Hoffman television set and the family's friends came over to watch Milton Berle.[7]

Robin was described as being calm and having a "sweet soul". She was "quiet and gentle, and she had lovely little blond curls."[9] Her father would later say of Robin: "She'd fight and cry and play and make her way just like the rest, but there was about her a certain softness... Her peace made me feel strong, and so very important."[10] In 1950, shortly after Robin's birth, the family relocated again, this time to Midland, Texas; the family quickly became involved in their new town.[11] They adapted very well to life in Midland, which they found they were well suited for, and decided to make Midland their home.[4] In February 1953, after having moved to their third house in Midland, the Bushes welcomed another son, John Ellis, affectionately called "Jeb".[12]

Illness and death

In the spring of 1953, shortly after Jeb's birth, Robin awoke one morning, listless.[13] She said she was unsure of what to do that particular morning, stating that she "may go out and lie on the grass and watch the cars go by", or just stay in bed. Barbara believed Robin had come down with what her mother had referred to as "spring fever",[14] as, up until that point, she had been "as rowdy and healthy" as her brothers.[1] The child was taken to the family's pediatrician, Dr. Dorothy Wyvell, who took a blood sample and told Barbara to return later that afternoon with George H. W.; Barbara had not yet noticed the bruises on Robin.[13] Dr. Wyvell told George and Barbara that Robin had leukemia in a very advanced stage. Her advice for them was to not tell anyone about the child's illness, and to take her home, "make life as easy as possible for her, and in three weeks' time, she'll be gone."[15] Neither parent had ever heard of leukemia, and, in the 1950s, not much was known of it; consequently, it was nearly always fatal.[16]

George H. W. Bush holding Robin, 1953.

The Bushes went against both parts of the doctor's advice. Almost immediately, their friends from the country club were discussing Robin's diagnosis, and George called his uncle, John M. Walker, president of Memorial Hospital in New York City. Walker urged them to take Robin to the adjacent Sloan Kettering Institute. He told George and Barbara that "you could never live with yourselves unless you treat her."[15] The very next day, leaving George W. and Jeb with different friends, they both flew to New York and had Robin admitted into Sloan Kettering. She was tested once again, and, after the diagnosis was confirmed, she was immediately put on medication.[17] George W. was told that his sister was sick, but was never explained exactly how bad her condition was; he certainly never imagined she had anything life-threatening.[18] For the next six months, Barbara largely remained in New York with Robin, while George drifted back and forth, due to his job. Their two sons were cared for either by family friends or by housekeepers.[15]

Robin was, by her mother's account, "wonderful", not questioning why she was sick. She disliked bone marrow tests, which were very painful, as were many of the blood transfusions she endured.[19] Oftentimes, the medication worked so well that Robin did not even appear to be ill. However, she never went into complete remission. According to Dr. Charlotte Tan, who treated Robin in New York, she was mature and tolerated her treatments well.[20] Barbara and George heard about a doctor in Kansas City who maintained he had found the cure for leukemia. However, their hopes were dashed when they found out the man was merely testing a new drug, and had not claimed to have the cure.[21][22] Sometimes, her parents would take Robin to the Bush house in Greenwich, Connecticut, and she was once taken to Maine for a brief period; there, she got to see her brothers, whose pictures she had taped to the headboard of her hospital bed.[19] During this visit, George W. was not allowed to wrestle his sister like they used to;[23] his mother focused most of her attention on Robin and would "snap" at him if he tried to "horse around" with the latter.[15]

By fall, Robin's condition was worsening. She spent time in an oxygen tent, and her platelets were low enough that whenever she started bleeding, it was very difficult to ascertain when it would stop.[24] Barbara allowed no crying around Robin, and made her husband leave the room if he felt like doing so. Prescott Bush, George's father, had purchased a lot for Robin to be buried in, as her situation was not improving. Eventually, due to her medication,[25] Robin developed heavy bruising, which almost entirely covered one of her legs, and "a hundred or so" stomach ulcers.[26] Barbara called George, and, by the time he arrived to his daughter's bedside, she had slipped into a coma. Barbara combed her hair and they both held her for the last time. Robin died peacefully,[25] on October 11, 1953, after doctors' frantic efforts to close the ulcers in her stomach.[27] She was two months shy of her fourth birthday. Two days later, on October 13,[28] a memorial service was held for Robin, at the Bushes' home in Greenwich. Initially, her body was donated for research, in hopes that her death might help others survive;[29] she was buried several days later, when the hospital released her remains, by Dorothy Walker Bush, her paternal grandmother, and Lud Ashley.[28]

Legacy

The portrait of Robin that hung in the Bushes' Texas homes.

Returning to life without Robin was very hard for her parents, and Barbara cried herself to sleep many nights.[30] Feeling Robin's absence as a huge blow to the family, she "crumbled" completely, and would later say that she "fell totally apart and [George] took care of [her]."[31] George W. was told of his sister's death a few days after it happened, when his parents picked him up from school. He would later describe this as the only low point of his happy childhood,[18] remembering the sadness he felt both for his parents and for the loss of his sister.[32] He and his brother Jeb then became their mother's focal points, and she devoted her time to caring for them, as a means of overcoming her daughter's death.[33][34]

After overhearing George W. tell one of his friends that he could not go out and play, as he needed to play with his mother, Barbara decided that it was time to heal, for her family.[1] After a few months, "the grief and the awful aching hurt began to disappear", and the Bushes began to remember the good times they had with Robin; eventually, her memory brought joy and happiness.[35] "I like... to think of Robin as though she were a part, a living part, of our vital energetic and wonderful family of men and [Barbara]," George H. W. Bush would later write.[36] Barbara came to believe that she and her husband valued all people more because of the loss they suffered with Robin.[33] It is also said that her daughter's sudden death was part of the reason for the future First Lady's premature graying.[1]

Dorothy Walker Bush commissioned an oil painting of Robin, which hung in the Bushes' homes in Midland and, later, Houston.[1][34] Eventually, they had three more children: Neil, in 1955, Marvin in 1956, and another daughter, Dorothy, known as "Doro" and born in 1959. Doro was once described by her father as "a wild dark version of Robin", noting that the two looked so much alike, his parents mistakenly called her Robin once.[37] When Doro was a child, her father would tuck her in before bed and tell her stories about Robin, and they would both cry.[38] In 2000, Robin's remains were transferred from Connecticut to the family's future burial plot at the George Bush Presidential Library in Texas. On this occasion, George H. W. stated: "It seems funny after almost 50 years since her death how dear Robin is to our hearts."[39]

Following Robin's death, the Bush family created a charity to raise awareness and money for leukemia research called the Bright Star Foundation, through which Barbara believed Robin lived on.[33] The impact of the Bright Star Foundation was acknowledged by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2004, when it opened the Robin Bush Child and Adolescent Clinic.[40] Barbara later became honorary chairwoman of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and honorary national chairperson of Donor Awareness Week.[41] Following Barbara's death in April 2018, a cartoon by Marshall Ramsey, of The Clarion-Ledger, was widely circulated, showing Robin greeting Barbara upon the latter's entry to heaven. The cartoon was shared by various people and relatives of the family, including George W.'s daughter, Jenna Bush Hager.[42]

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hendrix, Steve (2018-04-18). "'One last time': Barbara Bush had already faced a death more painful than her own". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  2. ↑ "George Bush Collection". George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ Bush 2015, p. 35.
  4. 1 2 3 Mitchell 2003, p. 25.
  5. ↑ "Cup Of Coffee Causes Crash In Which Native Ohioan Dies". The Cincinnati Enquirer. September 24, 1949. p. 8. Retrieved 2018-08-26.
  6. ↑ Bush 2015, p. 36.
  7. 1 2 Bush 2015, p. 37.
  8. ↑ Bush 2004, p. ix.
  9. ↑ Bush Hager, Jenna (2012-11-20). "'Barbara Bush: Child lost to cancer is 'an angel to me'". Today. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  10. ↑ Green 2000, p. 39.
  11. ↑ Gutin 2008, p. 13.
  12. ↑ Bush 2015, pp. 37-38.
  13. 1 2 Mitchell 2003, p. 32.
  14. ↑ Bush 2015, p. 39.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Mitchell 2003, p. 33.
  16. ↑ Blue & Naden 1991, p. 52.
  17. ↑ Bush 2015, p. 40.
  18. 1 2 Marquez 2006, p. 15.
  19. 1 2 Bush 2015, p. 43.
  20. ↑ Kilian 2003, p. 92.
  21. ↑ Bush 2015, p. 42.
  22. ↑ Kilian 2003, p. 93.
  23. ↑ Gormley 2000, p. 10.
  24. ↑ Mitchell 2003, p. 34.
  25. 1 2 Bush 2015, p. 44.
  26. ↑ Kilian 2003, p. 94.
  27. ↑ Mitchell 2003, p. 35.
  28. 1 2 Bush 2015, p. 45.
  29. ↑ Meacham 2015, p. 100.
  30. ↑ Gutin 2008, p. 15.
  31. ↑ Sosa & Chase 2018, p. 112.
  32. ↑ "Bush -- The Making of a Candidate". www.washingtonpost.com. 1999. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  33. 1 2 3 Bush 2015, p. 47.
  34. 1 2 Sosa & Chase 2018, p. 114.
  35. ↑ Bush 2013, p. 592.
  36. ↑ Meacham 2015, p. 102.
  37. ↑ Parmet 2000, p. 86.
  38. ↑ Kilian 2003, p. 130.
  39. ↑ Meacham 2015, p. 555.
  40. ↑ Villeneuve, Marina (2013-07-16). "Bush's bald head a reminder of his own child's leukemia fight". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  41. ↑ "Good-Bye to Robin". Amy Cunningham. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  42. ↑ Ramsey, Marshall (2018-04-19). "How the Barbara Bush cartoon took on a life of its own". USA Today. Retrieved 2018-04-19.

Bibliography

  • Blue, Rose; Naden, Corinne J. (1991). Barbara Bush: First Lady. New Jersey: Enslow Publishers. ISBN 0-89490-350-0.
  • Bush, Barbara (2004). Reflections: Life After the White House. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-7432-2359-4.
  • Bush, George H. W. (2013). All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4767-3116-2.
  • Bush, Barbara (2015). A Memoir. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-5011-2223-1.
  • Gormley, Beatrice (2000). President George W. Bush: Our Forty-Third President. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN 0-689-84410-7.
  • Green, Robert (2000). George Bush. Chicago: Ferguson Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89434-339-4.
  • Gutin, Myra G. (2008). Barbara Bush: Presidential Matriarch. Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700615834.
  • Kilian, Pamela (2003). Barbara Bush: Matriarch of a Dynasty. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-7862-4802-5.
  • Marquez, Heron (2006). George W. Bush. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8225-2647-6.
  • Meacham, Jon (2015). Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. Minneapolis: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6765-7.
  • Mitchell, Elizabeth (2003). W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty. New York: Berkley. ISBN 0-425-19432-9.
  • Parmet, Herbert S. (2000). George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-7658-0730-0.
  • Sosa, Ellie LeBlond; Chase, Kelly Anne (2018). George & Barbara Bush: A Great American Love Story. Maine: Down East Books. ISBN 978-1-60893-973-2.
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