In July of 1987, Barbara Bush–who died Tuesday at the age of 92–visited the Chautauqua Institution and spoke about how neither her husband, then President George H. W. Bush, nor preceeding President Ronald Reagan knew anything about the Iran-Contra affair before it was made public.

What Barbara Bush had actually appeared at the Institution to talk about was literacy; the Iran-Contra news was the only exception to her rule, she told reporters at the time.

Barbara Bush said literacy was her utmost important personal project ever since her husband was elected vice president. She kept true to that word as she spoke in a lecture at the Chautauqua Amphitheater.

The former first lady said her position allows her to garner media attention she needed to spotlight the problem of illiteracy rates in America.

“I’m not an expert on the causes or cures of illiteracy,” she said in 1987, “but I can get the people who are experts the attention and the contacts which they need to get on with ending the problem.”

Humble and matter-of-fact, Bush told the media to pay attention to Ruth Johnson Colvin who would lecture later in the week, specifically because she was the founder of Literacy Volunteers of America. In 1987, it was Barbara Bush’s personal goal to stamp out illiteracy by the year 2000.

The former first lady said that volunteers and the private sector have the biggest role in combating illiteracy along with teachers, whom she was a proponent of.

“American teachers are underpaid, overworked and underappreciated. I’m a big booster of teachers,” she said. She was a believer in the power to donate one’s time. “Volunteerism has moved mountains in the history of American social problems. Volunteers working as tutors, serving on school boards, backing up teachers, can make a difference.

“Churches can donate the use of buildings to literacy programs. Businesses can donate materials. Everyone can do his share.”

Computer programs and video cassette recorders were on the rise during this era, so people in the audience asked Barbara Bush what she thought of the new technology’s effectiveness in getting rid of illiteracy.

She said there were wonderful programs such as “Reading Rainbow” that offered new ways to learn. She also noted that some kids were so enthralled with computers that they would then spend hours on programs that were designed to make them read. The former first lady also praised computer technology for allowing adults the more anonymous chance to learn how to read without the need of a potentially embarrassing tutor.

Barbara Bush was the only woman to see both her husband and son attain the office of president. She was known for her frankness and being proud to stand alongside her husband.

“What you see with me is what you get. I’m not running for president – George Bush is,” she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention.

The Bushes had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history.

“I had the best job in America,” she wrote in a 1994 memoir.

While she was passionate about certain things, she often got out of the way of politics.

“I don’t fool around with his office,” she said once about her husband, “and he doesn’t fool around with my household.”

Barbara Bush raised five children: George W., Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. She also shortly raised a sixth child, daughter Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953.