Former First Lady Laura Bush and her family are mourning the loss of Jenna Hawkins Welch, who passed away at the remarkable age of 99 — just two days before Mother’s Day. Remembered as “a true daughter of West Texas,” Welch lived a life steeped in love, learning, and natural beauty, inspiring generations of women in her family, including her daughter Laura and granddaughter Jenna Bush Hager.
Laura shared the heartbreaking news on Instagram, calling her mother “a true daughter of West Texas who loved her family, books, and nature.” She reflected tenderly on memories of stargazing beneath the Midland sky and reading together — two simple joys that shaped the future First Lady’s lifelong passion for literacy and education.
Jenna Bush Hager, who was named after her grandmother, also posted a moving tribute on social media, calling Welch “my precious namesake.” She remembered how her grandmother “read us poetry and taught us about every constellation in the sky,” describing her kindness and wisdom as “as expansive as the West Texas horizon.” Hager added that she found peace knowing her grandmother was “reunited after almost 25 years apart” with her great love, husband Harold Bruce.
Welch’s long and extraordinary life was marked by intellectual curiosity and an enduring love for nature. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1919, she came of age during the Great Depression, later attending the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (now UTEP). She met her husband while working at a local advertising company — a chance encounter that, as family lore tells it, began when “she looked down from a second-floor office window just as he looked up from the street below.”
After his service in World War II, the couple settled in Midland, Texas, where they raised their only daughter, Laura. Welch’s obituary describes her as a “self-taught naturalist” who became an expert on the wildflowers and birds of West Texas. Her fascination with astronomy also shaped family traditions of skywatching — a love she passed to her daughter and granddaughters.
Laura Bush once described returning home from school to “the soft rustle of book pages,” where she’d find her mother deep in a novel. Welch introduced her to Little Women and cultivated a deep appreciation for reading that Laura would later champion on a national scale through literacy initiatives as First Lady.
The Welch family held a private funeral service in Midland, choosing to honor her memory not with flowers but with donations to two causes close to her heart — the Midland County Public Library Foundation and the Jenna Welch Nature Study Center, which continues her legacy of environmental education.
Reflecting on her mother’s passing, Laura Bush wrote, “Our family is grateful for her long and wonderful life. We miss her dearly.”
A century of wisdom, grace, and love — Jenna Hawkins Welch’s spirit lives on in the women she inspired, the stories she shared, and the Texas skies she so loved to explore.
