Former first lady Barbara Bush speaks at the New London Town Hall in 2000 while campaigning for her son George W. Bush.
Former first lady Barbara Bush speaks at the New London Town Hall in 2000 while campaigning for her son George W. Bush. Credit: AP file

Tom Rath may have said it best.

“She had an extraordinary life,” the longtime New Hampshire based GOP consultant and former state attorney general said of his friend, former first lady Barbara Bush.

“The fact that she died with her husband at her side, holding her hand,” Rath said. “I’m sorry. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Bush, who died Tuesday at age 92, was no stranger to New Hampshire.

Granite Staters who knew Bush best shared their thoughts and stories of the second woman in U.S. history – following Abigail Adams – to be the wife and mother of a president.

“She’s a great lady, a great friend, a great loss to the country, and I think she set the example for what first ladies – and what first ladies after they leave the White House – ought to be like,” former governor John H. Sununu said.

Sununu worked in the White House with Bush.

After three-terms as New Hampshire governor, Sununu served as chief of staff to her husband, President George H.W. Bush. He said he got along with the first lady, who was known for being feisty.

“I was lucky. As chief of staff, the first lady and I got along very well,” Sununu recalled.

“We had gotten to know each other quite well during the years I was governor and certainly through the 1988 campaign. So by the time we got there, we had a very nice relationship and it lasted not only through the White House years, it lasted all the way until she passed away,” he said.

Sununu pointed out that Barbara Bush was extremely self-disciplined.

“She knew that the family was in the public eye at all times and understood that she had a role to play as first lady of the United States and played it very well,” he said.

“One of her great traits was that she could tell the real people from the phonies and was able to provide protection, if you will, for the president, from those people who were always trying to get close to a president,” Sununu said. “She helped him sort out those who should get through the pass and those that shouldn’t.”

Sununu added that Barbara Bush enjoyed her time in the Granite State.

“I think she liked campaigning in New Hampshire. She liked what I often call the ‘See me, Touch me, Feel me’ part of the campaign. You get a chance to talk directly to the voters, and she certainly campaigned up here a lot in 1988,” he said.

David Carney also shared fond memories of Bush. The veteran New Hampshire-based GOP strategist volunteered on George H.W. Bush’s 1980 and 1988 presidential campaigns and worked as political director in Bush’s White House.

“She was always unbelievably gracious and a very classy person who made everyone feel comfortable,” Carney said.

Carney told a story involving his mother to illustrate the impact Barbara Bush had on people.

As her husband contemplated his first run for the White House in the 1980 election, Carney’s mom held a tea at her home in Francestown so local Republicans could meet Mrs. Bush.

The future first lady later wrote a thank-you note to his mother, which his mother kept until she passed away in 2001.

“That little postcard was on the bulletin board in our kitchen for all those years,” he said.

Bush had a way of connecting to people, Carney said.

“She just had a remarkable way about herself. It was nonpolitical. You never really thought she was there trying to sell you to vote for George Bush,” he said. “It was a very personal relationship with people of all walks of life. That was a fascinating thing to watch.”

After campaigning in New Hampshire over the years for her husband, Barbara Bush returned to the first-in-the-nation primary state in 2000 to campaign for her son, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Rath, who was a senior national adviser to the Bush 2000 presidential campaign, shared a story to spotlight the former first lady’s humor and how she always looked out for her family.

“It was right toward the end of the primary, and we were doing a big rally in Milford,” Rath recalled.

“The former president and Mrs. Bush were there. As I came into the green room beforehand, she grabbed me and said ‘Tom Rath. My son has a cold. Are you working him too hard?’ ” he said. “She was always the mother.”

Rath also highlighted how that summer, at the Republican presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia where her son formally won the GOP nomination, she was beaming like a proud mother the entire week.

“She could be feisty, tough, funny, loyal. She was a fierce defender of her family, but she was gracious and decent and really a very fine person,” Rath said.

“She defined the term ‘a life well-lived.’