Barbara Bush died Tuesday at 92, surrounded by family and following an evening of phoning friends and sipping bourbon. Bush joins the ranks of only one other woman in U.S. history who has both married and raised men who turned out to be presidents, the indomitable Abigail Adams being the other. Because Bush enjoyed a privileged upbringing and focused most of her life on parenting, marriage, and promoting literacy, many on the Right and the Left criticized her for failing to be a feminist role model. Though not a feminist in the modern sense of the word, and likely a title she herself would have eschewed, she did embody traditional feminist tenets of yore: choice, loyalty, grit, and determination.

[Related: Barbara Bush: Her life in photos]