Editor, Gazette-Journal:
On last week’s Gazette-Journal opinion page, I read Mari Ann Banks’s letter about Barbara Bush’s literacy efforts and Mari Ann’s personal involvement. I have another recollection of this just passed president’s wife. It is of the 1990 invitation by the senior class at Wellesley College to Mrs. Bush to be the commencement speaker at their graduation. Some readers may recall the event and dust-up. A number of the students didn’t like Mrs. Bush being the substitute for their unavailable first choice, author Alice Walker who wrote “The Color Purple.” A compromise was struck with an invitation to Mrs. Gorbachev, wife of the last Soviet leader, to share the platform. It was in many ways similar to how undergrads and some teachers at schools around this country behave these days. 
At the commencement ceremony Barbara Bush was characteristically charming and gracious, and reminded those listening “to cherish yo...