Colorado Politics

Hickenlooper orders flags at half-staff in honor of the late Barbara Bush

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has ordered flags across the state lowered in honor of former first lady Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday at age 92.

“She will be missed,” Hickenlooper tweeted Wednesday morning.

Mrs. Bush, wife of former President George H.W. Bush, had declined further medical treatment for health problems and was to focus instead on “comfort care” at home in Houston, a family spokesman said Sunday. She had recently been hospitalized for congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Flags are to remain lowered until sunset on the day of internment. A funeral is planned Saturday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, which Mrs. Bush and her husband regularly attended. Mrs. Bush will lie in repose Friday at the church for members of the public who want to pay respects. Saturday’s service will be by invitation only, according to the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation.

Hickenlooper’s order mirrors a presidential proclamation issued by President Donald Trump Wednesday. In the proclamation, Trump calls Mrs. Bush “an outstanding and memorable woman of character.”

“As a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, military spouse and former First Lady, Mrs. Bush was an advocate of the American family,” Trump said in the proclamation. “Mrs. Bush lived a life that reminds us always to cherish our relationships with friends, family, and all acquaintances. In the spirit of the memory of Mrs. Bush, may we always remember to be kind to one another and to put the care of others first.”

Her son, former President George W. Bush, remembered his mother as a “fabulous First Lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love and literacy to millions.”

“Laura, Barbara, Jenna and I are sad, but our souls are settled because we know hers was,” he said in a Tuesday statement. “Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end. I’m a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother.”

George H.W. Bush held his wife’s hand all day Tuesday and was at her side when she died, according to Jean Becker, chief of staff at George H.W. Bush’s office in Houston.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 
Doug Mills
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