Barbara Bush — first lady and a lady, first

Barbara Bush had no need for a big, sleek limousine or a private plane.

Soon after becoming first lady, she told the Secret Service she wanted to travel in a small car and commercially by train or airline. The Secret Service didn’t like it but gave in on the small car. It convinced Bush, however, to use a private plane. It wasn’t the fact that she was first lady and was expected to exploit such luxuries that convinced her, but that she didn’t want to delay the public passengers while the Secret Service checked for threats. “To inconvenience so many others was not reasonable,” she wrote in her 1994 memoir.