FILE - In this April 11, 2006 file photo, Jenna Welch, mother of former first lady Laura Bush, waves as she recognizes someone in attendance at the dedication ceremony of the George W. Bush childhood home in Midland, Texas. Welch has died in Texas. She was 99. Granddaughter and namesake Jenna Bush Hager said Monday, May 13, 2019, on the "Today" show that Welch, a longtime Midland resident, died Friday, May 10. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierre, File)

Former first lady Laura Bush's mother dies in Texas at 99

By Associated Press AP

PUBLISHED 1:57 PM ET May. 13, 2019

MIDLAND, Texas (AP) — Jenna Welch, the mother of former first lady Laura Bush, has died in Texas. She was 99.

Granddaughter and namesake Jenna Bush Hager said Monday on NBC's "Today" show that Welch, a longtime Midland, Texas, resident, died Friday. The "Today" co-anchor said her grandmother loved nature and "taught us every star in the sky."

Laura Bush in an Instagram post called her mother "a true daughter of West Texas who loved her family, books, and nature." An obituary in the Midland Reporter-Telegram said the family held a funeral Saturday in Midland.

Born on July 24, 1919, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Welch was raised near El Paso, Texas. She and her husband, Harold Welch, moved to Midland in 1946 after he returned from serving in World War II. Harold Welch died in 1995.