Editing Barbara Bush (section)

=== Courtship and marriage ===
When Pierce was 16 and on Christmas vacation, she met [[George H. W. Bush]].{{Sfn|Caroli|2010|p=286}} They met at a Christmas dance at the Greenwich Country Club, when he saw her across the room and asked a friend to introduce them.{{Sfn|Page|2019|loc=Chapter 5}} After a dance together, they instead sat and talked because Bush did not know how to [[waltz]].{{Sfn|Carlin|2016|p=610}} They were immediately infatuated with one another,{{Sfn|Gutin|2008|pp=3–4}}{{Sfn|Kilian|2002|pp=24–25}} and they met again, first at a dance the following night, and then when Bush agreed to play a basketball game with her brother—a game that was attended by the entire Pierce family, who all wished to see the object of her affections.{{Sfn|Kilian|2002|p=26}} They kept a correspondence after Pierce returned to Ashley Hall, and they went on a date during their spring break. He then asked Pierce to accompany him to his senior [[prom]].{{Sfn|Kilian|2002|p=27}} Bush enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942 after he graduated, and they saw each other on visits until the following year, when they were secretly engaged. Despite their original intention of secrecy, their families soon knew of it.{{Sfn|Carlin|2016|p=611}} Pierce graduated from Ashley Hall in 1943.{{Sfn|Schneider|Schneider|2010|p=330}}

Pierce briefly attended [[Smith College]] while Bush was fighting in the [[Pacific War|Pacific theater of World War II]], but she dropped out at the beginning of her second year in anticipation of their wedding.{{Sfn|Caroli|2010|p=286}} While in college, she focused on the social and athletic aspects rather than her studies, as she already had the promise of a stable life after her wedding.{{Sfn|Gutin|2008|p=8}}{{Sfn|Kilian|2002|p=30}} To support the war effort, she worked at a nuts-and-bolts factory as a [[gofer]]. While Bush was on leave, Pierce accompanied him to his family home. She took quickly to the family, and they gave her the nickname Bar, which was derived from teasingly calling her the name of the family horse, Barsil, rather than from her own name. She retained the nickname for life. In June 1944, she feared him dead after learning that [[Chichijima incident|his plane was shot down]], but he was soon found and rescued.{{Sfn|Page|2019|loc=Chapter 5}}

Pierce married Bush at the Rye First Presbyterian Church on January 6, 1945, when she was 19 years old.{{Sfn|Carlin|2016|p=612}} The reception was held at [[The Apawamis Club]], where they had gone on their first date,{{Sfn|Kilian|2002|p=32}} and they had their [[honeymoon]] in [[Sea Island, Georgia]].{{Sfn|Schneider|Schneider|2010|p=330}} For the first eight months of their marriage, George and Barbara Bush moved around the Eastern United States, to places including [[Michigan]], [[Maryland]], and [[Virginia]], where George Bush's Navy squadron training required his presence.<ref name="FL bio"/> After George was discharged, they moved to [[New Haven, Connecticut]], and they lived in shared housing while George was attending [[Yale University]].{{Sfn|Schneider|Schneider|2010|p=330}} Barbara decided not to return to college, instead working a part-time job on the Yale campus before focusing on having and raising children. Their first child, [[George W. Bush|George]], was born on July 6, 1946.{{Sfn|Carlin|2016|p=612}}