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'Beautiful' until the very end: Jeb Bush eulogizes mother, Barbara

HOUSTON — Some 1,500 guests attended a private funeral for Barbara Bush Saturday at the nation's largest Episcopal church.

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First lady Melania Trump, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, and former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended the by-invitation-only service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston. Burial will follow at the Bush Library at Texas A&M University, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Houston.

MORE: Condolences pouring in for Barbara Bush, ‘she had grit and grace, brains and beauty’

The burial site is in a gated plot surrounded by trees and near a creek where the couple's 3-year-old daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953, is buried.

In a statement released Friday, the family said Barbara Bush had selected son Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, to deliver the eulogy along with her longtime friend Susan Baker, wife of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and historian Jon Meacham, who wrote a 2015 biography of her husband.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush joked how his mother called her style of mothering him and his siblings "a benevolent dictatorship — but honestly it wasn't always benevolent."

He emphasized how one of the most important lessons she taught him and others was the power of laughter and that joy should be shared.

He choked up at one point, saying his mother — who was known for her self-deprecating remarks about her wrinkles and gray hair — was "beautiful" until the very end.

Bush said he felt privileged that he had a "front row" seat to the incredible love story that his parents shared.

Historian Meacham says Barbara Bush was the "first lady of the greatest generation." He said in his eulogy that the wife of the 41st president and the mother of the 43rd was "candid and comforting, steadfast and straightforward, honest and loving."

Meacham recalled her work bringing awareness to AIDS patients and in promoting literacy. He also spoke of her quick wit that made her so popular.

Meacham said she was devoted to her husband of 73 years, saying former President George H.W. Bush was the "only boy she ever kissed."

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Family, friends gather for funeral service to honor former First Lady Barbara Bush in Houston

Posted by Boston 25 News on Saturday, April 21, 2018

Thousands of people on Friday paid respects to Barbara Bush, wife of the nation's 41st president and mother of the nation's 43rd. Bush died Tuesday at her Houston home. She was 92.