George H.W. Bush Celebrates 80th Birthday
HOUSTON – A baseball park full of high-powered friends celebrated former President George H.W. Bush’s 80th birthday Saturday night, part of a weekend of festivities to be topped with a skydive Sunday.
About 5,200 people, including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, former British Prime Minister John Major and celebrities and sports figures such as Dennis Miller and Pete Sampras, wished Bush a happy birthday at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.
When Bush’s oldest son, President Bush, and his wife, Laura, were introduced, the audience loudly applauded and waved tiny American flags. When his parents joined him on stage, the nation’s 41st president put his arm around the 43rd president’s shoulders and gave him a swift slap on the back.
“I want to thank you for coming to wish our dad a happy birthday. Most of you are here because over the years you have come to know and love our dad,” President Bush told the crowd. “He has touched you because of his decency and warmth, his humility and humor. You know what we know. We are fortunate to have George Bush as a part of our lives.”
The celebration came a day after former President Ronald Reagan was buried in California.
“After a week of mourning and remembering the life of one great American president, it is certainly fitting we end the week celebrating the birthday of another,” said talk show host Larry King. King served as master of ceremonies for the party, which also featured performances by musicians including Wynonna Judd and Crystal Gayle.
The festivities included humorous and heartfelt tributes to Bush from Dan Quayle, his vice president, Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and Miller.
“You must feel really proud to look out here tonight and see all the friends you have made and kept from all different periods of your life. I think it signals a certain consistency that has followed you over the years as you made the long trek from Yale to y’all,” Miller said.
Gorbachev, speaking through a translator, said “of all my counterparts in the world arena, George Bush was the best. He was a reliable partner. He had balanced judgment and he had decency.”
Bush thanked the crowd, saying, “this has been an emotional and wonderful night.” The evening concluded with the crowd singing “Happy Birthday” as the Golden Knights, the Army parachute team that will accompany him on his jump Sunday, parachuted into Minute Maid Park. That was followed by a fireworks display.
The elder Bush intends to make his parachute jump Sunday over Texas A&M University in College Station, home of his presidential library and museum.
The skydive will be “very safe. It will be a thrill for me,” the former president said at a luncheon in his honor Saturday at the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Bush has made four parachute jumps in his life – the first as a Navy pilot shot down over the Pacific during World War II. He has made the other jumps since leaving the White House more than a decade ago, including one on his 75th birthday.
Saturday night’s party was a fund-raiser for the George Bush Forty-One Endowment, which is trying to raise $30 million to support his presidential library, the cancer center and his Points of Light Foundation. Tickets started at $200. During the party, it was announced that more than $55 million were raised in the last two years.
Officials at M.D. Anderson thanked Bush and his wife, Barbara, for their fund-raising efforts on behalf of the cancer center by unveiling the Robin Bush Child and Adolescent Clinic. The facility was named for the Bushes’ 3-year-old daughter, who died from leukemia in 1953.
The George and Barbara Bush Endowment for Innovative Cancer Research at M.D. Anderson has raised more than $50 million since its founding in 1998.