Barbara Bush Keynotes Women's Life National Convention
Roanoke Tribune
September 1998

Minneapolis, MN – Former First Lady Barbara Bush was the keynote speaker at the Women’s Life National Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. Family literacy – the number one cause of Mrs. Bush and Women’s Life – was the topic of Mrs. Bush’s speech on Monday Aug. 10 from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

At a luncheon following the address, Janice Whipple, national president and chairman of the board of Women’s Life, presented a $20,000 check to Mrs. Bush to benefit the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

Throughout her years in public life, Mrs. Bush volunteered in and supported hundreds of charity and human causes, but literacy remains her number one cause. She believes, and so do the experts, that if more people could read, write and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving many of the problems plaguing our society today. In 1990, she helped develop the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, whose mission is to support the development of family literacy programs; break the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy; and establish literacy as a value of every American family. She currently serves as honorary chair of the Foundation, hosts its annual fund raiser, "A Celebration of Reading, " and regularly donates a portion of her proceeds to the Foundation’s causes.

Some 400 delegates from throughout the United States and Canada attended the Women’s Life 29^th National Convention held Aug. 9 — 11 at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Hilton in Minneapolis.

"Tomorrow’s Future Begins Today," the convention’s theme, has particular relevance to the literacy program the fraternal benefit society has promoted for the past 18 months and now intends to name as a national cause. "Indeed, there is not one issue that can have greater impact on the lives of women and children tomorrow than giving them literacy skills today," confirms Mrs. Whipple.

With the home office located in Port Huron, Michigan, Women’s Life Insurance Society is a not-for-profit fraternal benefit society created more than 100 years ago to help women protect themselves and their families form the unexpected and the unplanned.