"MAINE IS MY HAPPY PLACE"

This past fall I had the opportunity to interview Dorothy Walker Bush Koch at her home on Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport. The article appeared in the winter edition of TOURIST & TOWN MAGAZINE but I promised that I would share it later with you all. So….here it is.

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The Daughter of President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Treasures the Community Where People Call her “Doro”

“Kennebunkport is like the bar in the television show ‘Cheers,’” Doro Bush says with a smile. “Everyone knows our name. But when I’m shopping or dining at local restaurants, people here also know me as ‘Doro,’ not the former ‘First Daughter.’ Whether I’m at spin class or food shopping in Hannaford’s, I’m under the radar. I appreciate that.”

Dorothy Walker Bush LeBlond Koch has been in the spotlight for most of her 62 years. At 12, she lived “a la Eloise” with her parents in Apartment 42A on the top floor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City while her father served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. After President Gerald Ford appointed Bush as his special envoy to China in 1974, the teenager visited her parents over Spring break from boarding school and became the first person publicly baptized in the People’s Republic.

During her father’s Presidential years, she wore chic taffeta gowns to State Dinners “filled with glorious pomp and circumstance.” At a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth, Doro noted the monarch “clutched her little purse and had an absolute deadpan look as she said very witty things.” While sipping afternoon tea with Princess Diana, Doro saw that “Diana didn’t wear panty hose but her long legs were simply beautiful.”

Spending family Christmases at Camp David, introducing her Catholic sons to Pope Benedict XVI, and being part of the United States delegations to the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo and France are moments she treasures today. But being in the public eye has not always been easy. Or kind.

“When your father, then your brother, become President of the United States, there are pressure-filled moments that can be quite uncomfortable,” she says. “Their campaigns were long and stressful, especially when I heard so many untruths. I just had to accept what was being said.” Though happily married today to Robert (Bobby) Koch, Doro’s first marriage to William LeBlond ended sadly in divorce. And admittedly, she still grieves for the loss of her mother and father.

Now in her 60s and looking more like the “Silver Fox” every day (“My hair is turning a little white, just like Mom’s,” she laughs), Doro divides her active life between a family home on a wooded cul-de-sac in Bethesda, Maryland and Walker’s Point, the spectacular nine-acre rocky outcropping on Ocean Avenue, Kennebunkport.

Throughout the year she proudly honors and maintains her mother’s legacy by serving as honorary chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. “Our parents raised us to give back to our communities and country,” Doro says. “I like walking in Mom’s footsteps. Her foundation strives to make literacy a core value in every American home and that’s become my passion too. Honestly, if you can’t read, you can’t do a lot of things.”

This fall, with Literacy Foundation CEO and President British Robinson, Doro will co-chair the national convention to celebrate reading in Washington, D.C. “Mom started the Foundation in 1991 and considered literacy ‘the most important issue we have.’ I do too.”

Doro also co-manages BB&R (Bright, Bold and Real), the wellness company she and her sister-in-law Tricia Koch founded two decades ago. “We both had keen and mutual interests in holistic health and started BB&R to focus on healthier living.” Much of their outreach involves creating educational programs for groups and businesses that are designed to cultivate mindful practices for a vibrant life.

Partnered with Georgetown University, BB&R presents podcasts and lectures, while also sponsoring an annual retreat at the Gasparilla Inn in Boca Grande, Florida. Doro says, “Everyone is a bio-individual. Not one size fits all. I believe strongly that BB&R prepares you for big and serious moments in life.”

In Kennebunkport, Doro lives at Walker’s Point in a shingled one-story bungalow “originally built in 1921 for my grandmother, also named Dorothy Walker Bush,” she says. The spacious, comfortable living room is a summer symphony of blue and white upholstered furniture with accents of colorful Damariscotta pottery and local art. Many summer mornings, Doro sits at a wooden table next to the windows, sipping coffee while looking for the correct wooden pieces to finish her latest challenging Liberty Puzzle.

(Painting above was done by Doro’s brother, President George W. Bush.)

“My dining room used to be a summer sleeping porch where my dad slept when he was a boy,” she says. Today the sunlit room features an aquamarine-and-white Harlequin floor painted by local artist Holly Ross, along with a spectacular window view of the nearby Atlantic and Doro’s lush English-stye gardens.

She admits that her favorite item in the four bedroom bungalow is a technicolor impressionistic painting hanging on the dining room wall, created by her brother, President George W. Bush. “It’s actually a depiction of my garden walk and we titled it ‘Explosion of Gratitude’ because I feel gratitude every day I’m here."

Doro’s earliest memory of Kennebunkport was as a five-year-old hanging onto the bow of her father’s boat, “the Rebel,” bouncing past Gooch’s Beach as he pounded over the waves. “I’ve always loved the sounds and smells of the ocean, climbing over the rocks, and the spectacular sunsets at Walker’s Point. Dad called this place his ‘Anchor to Windward,’ and it’s become that for all of us too.”

“Us” includes former President George W. Bush and Laura who live in “the big house,” aka Surf Ledge, undoubtedly the most photographed residence in Kennebunkport. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s house sits adjacent to Doro’s, and her brothers Neil and Marvin also own houses on the Point. She says, “Coming here every summer is a consistency in our lives. It’s family and we all get together for dinner at least once a week. We are so grateful to share this magnificent gift from our parents.”

This past summer at brother Marvin’s suggestion, the family added two pickle ball courts with a seating area between them which they immediately dubbed “the Marvillion.” Doro says, “Every day during July and August we all meet here around 5 PM for very competitive games. Many of our kids have been living here during the summer and working remotely on Zoom, so there are often 40 of us ready to grab a paddle and play pickle.”

Throughout the summer, Doro’s four children (Sam, Ellie, Robert and G.G.) visit as frequently as they can. This past August, Doro especially enjoyed watching her one-year-old and first grandchild Dottie (Dorothy Ann Sosa) totter through the wood-paneled halls of her bungalow, past black and white photographs of prior Bush and Walker generations.

“Maine is my happy place,” Doro says. “In January, I begin the mental countdown. In March and April, I plant seeds at my home in Maryland for my garden here. This year I started nasturtiums, sweet peas and the cup and saucer vine which thrived all summer long. Parts of my gardens were originally planted by my grandmother. I love my work with BB&R and the Literacy Foundation, and Maryland is great, but Maine truly holds my heart.”

“Mom and Dad traveled constantly when we were growing up but, when they were home, it was always quality time,” Doro says. “Despite their busy schedules, we were their focus. Family meant everything to them, and it reverberates today. I remember after 9/11 when my brother was President, George called each of us and said, ‘These are tough times and I need to be with my family. When Laura and I go to Camp David, I want you to come too.’ We all understood because Mom and Dad put family first.”

Having a father who became President, and then a brother, never changed family dynamics. Doro insists, “There was respect for who they were outside the home, but inside, Dad was still Dad and George was still my older brother. I’m extremely proud of both of them.”

Near the end of her 2006 book, MY FATHER, MY PRESIDENT: A Personal Account of the Life of George H. W. Bush, Doro wrote, “Every family has its history, and most people think the most important part of our family’s history involves the presidency. But we think what’s significant about our family history is what Kennebunkport has come to symbolize for us: faith, family and friends.”

All enjoyed with an explosion of gratitude, too.