Laura Bush champions libraries during Vancouver visit

o Born Nov. 4, 1946, the only child of Harold and Jenna Welch, in Midland, Texas; now lives in Dallas.

o For several years, up to 1959, she and future husband, George W. Bush, lived only blocks apart in Midland. Both attended San Jacinto Junior High that year, but never met until introduced by Midland friends in July 1977. They married just four months later.

o Fraternal twin daughters Barbara and Jenna, born in November 1981, took their grandmothers’ names.

o Laura earned a teaching degree from Southern Methodist University and a library science degree from the University of Texas. From 1968 to 1977, she taught fourth grade in Dallas and Houston public schools, worked for a Houston public library and was school librarian at an Austin elementary school.

Copies of Bush’s memoir, “Spoken from the Heart,” released in early 2010, were on sale outside the ballroom Tuesday.

The 432-page book doesn’t delve into most gritty details of policy-making or campaigning; she makes larger points gracefully, as one would expect.

But her vivid description of her west Texas upbringing is riveting, as are many lesser-known details of her life as first lady.

She and other White House staff were hustled to secure, underground quarters by armed security agents on several occasions, not just on 9/11. The president’s family foots the monthly bill for its daily in-house food, as well as dry cleaning and outside laundry, and also special, private occasions such as birthday or anniversary events. And there are subtle details in state dinners, formal protocol and international relations that easily escape notice.

Former first lady and longtime reading and education advocate Laura Bush got an early understanding of the role of public libraries.

As a young girl, she cherished trips with her mother to the library, housed in the basement of the county courthouse, itself a cool, green oasis in sunbaked Midland, Texas.

“The signal to me was, the library was the most important building in town,” Bush told a crowd of more than 900 packed into the Hilton Vancouver Washington’s main ballroom on Tuesday.

She was the featured speaker at the 2010 Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation’s “Authors & Illustrators” dinner and silent auction, the top fundraiser for the literacy-minded group.

Spending six years in the Texas state capitol building in Austin, and the next eight in the White House, with her husband, former President George W. Bush, Laura Bush is no stranger to important buildings, and important issues.

Yet, a well-honed sense of humor, which she counts as her husband’s most charming attribute, has helped the couple through difficult times.

It helps to be humbled when a friend stumbles across your own bobblehead doll in a Philadelphia museum — “on clearance,” Bush noted, drawing laughs as she placed the figurine on the lectern for the remainder of her 32-minute talk.

Bush recounted several sobering, “transformative” events of her husband’s administration, from the 2000 “election that never was” to 9/11 and lingering terror threats, to her staunch advocacy for women of Afghanistan, Africa and elsewhere.

“When you educate and empower women, you improve virtually every aspect of society” is a message she has shared across the globe, she said.

Literacy also should know no bounds, she said: “I believe that every child in America should be able to read. Literacy is the fundamental foundation for democracy.”

It was an audience and subject made-to-order for the former first lady, now 64.

She taught public school and was a public and school librarian in Dallas, Houston and Austin before she married George and was thrust into a political life.

As first lady of Texas. she established a state book festival that continues to rock Austin each year. She replicated the idea at the White House, creating a national book festival that President Barrack and Michelle Obama agreed to lead and most recently drew about 130,000 guests, she said.

Life is quieter now, in a comfortable Dallas home, Bush said.

Her memoir hit bookstore shelves in May, while George’s arrived this autumn. Both are busy planning his presidential library, due to open on the Southern Methodist University campus in 2013. And, both continue their passions — for enjoying close friends and family life, neighborhood walks with or without their dogs, and reading.

In a question-and-answer session following her talk, Bush shed light on her habits and thoughts:

• On E-books: “They’re terrific. We have both Kindles and iPads. I think there’s a place for all of these (print or electronic books),” she said. “You can make the font bigger” — which is increasingly helpful, she said — “and, it’s easier in bed to punch the button than turn the page.”

• On the barrage of criticism in Washington: “It bothered me, but it didn’t get to me. I know who I am, and who George is,” she said. The couple ceded to the notion that “America’s blathering and bloviating is a kind of sacred music,” or at least the grating but necessary grinding of democracy’s gears, she said.

• On post-White House life: “It’s what I call the afterlife, and George calls the promised land,” she said. She didn’t realize how stressed life was until she experienced otherwise. Not that all is perfect, now: While George chips in with everyday chores, she still has to keep him in line, she said: “Conflict in East Timor is no longer an excuse to not hang up the socks.”

Earlier, Bush joined a private champagne reception upstairs in the Hilton.

About six dozen guests paid $250 each for a professional photograph with the former first lady. Then, she gracefully worked the room, as she has countless times before.

Very near the front of the photo line were Colleen Boccio and Brent Holland, a Ridgefield couple. Holland, an eastern Oregon native, sported a black cowboy hat, a nod to Bush’s west Texas roots.

“Chance of a lifetime. I like Laura,” said Boccio, glad to support the library cause. She was impressed with last year’s featured guest, actor-author John Lithgow, but said now organizers are “outdoing themselves.”

Christina Otto of Vancouver told Bush how much her own daughter admired the former first couple. Jaura Heaton, 24, works in U.S. Air Force intelligence. She is currently based in Texas but soon to be deployed in Turkey, Otto said.

“She loves the Bushes,” Otto said. “She worships George Bush.”