Kennebunkport honors Barbara Bush with garden party celebrating literacy and legacy

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (WGME) — On June 8, 1925, former First Lady Barbara Bush was born, and Sunday would have been her 100th birthday.

Community members gathered to mark the occasion in Kennebunkport.

People of all ages from near and far gathered in “Ganny’s Garden” in honor of Barbara Bush, the wife of the 41st president George H.W. Bush and mother of the 43rd president George W. Bush.

“We wanted to have this wonderful town birthday party to celebrate her legacy, our legacy, and literacy,” Andrew Roberts, the president of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, said.

The garden serves as a tribute to the former first lady, making it the perfect place to celebrate her birthday.

“What makes Barbara iconic, in my opinion, is her ability to join more old-fashioned values with a commitment to her family, loyalty to her husband, with a high energy of the modern woman,” Kennebunk resident Stephanie Harzewski said.

And you can’t have a birthday party without cake. One of the many cakes served at the party included a replica of the Bushs’ wedding cake.

“I will look back at this event and remarkable display of cakes, for sure, and remember not only a beautiful summer day, but what a person, who has a consistent commitment to excellence, how their reverberations live on,” Harzewski said.

The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust hosted the event spotlighting Barbara’s legacy through literature, music, games, and even writing a letter to the Bush family themselves.

“The legacy [of] Barbara Bush, her ties not only to Kennebunkport, but her extraordinary work as an educator with her Barbara Bush Foundation for Literacy, and her humanitarianism around the world,” Albert Black of the Kennebunkport Historical Society said.

This is just one of many events happening this week in Maine to honor Barbara. On Tuesday, the postal service will celebrate her life with the unveiling of a new stamp.