Sorry PussyFoot, you can't pull a "Chappy" out of your hat on this one...
Laura Bush, wife of aspiring presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, has carried a dark secret for more than 30 years, reports Star Magazine in current editions: Her high school sweetheart died in a tragic auto accident, hit by a car she was driving.
To this day, those close to Laura Bush will speak of this incident only in hushed tones -- and no one can recall her broaching the topic in the 36 years since it happened.
Sources tell Star that the wife of the White House hopeful was devastated by the episode -- so much so that it changed her personality forever.
"Before the accident, she was a pretty normal teenager," one high school classmate told the tabloid. "But afterwards she became more serious and quiet." Even today Mrs. Bush is known as the shy and quiet type.
On Nov. 6, 1963, then-17 year-old Laura Welch was driving with a friend on a Midland, Texas highway. In a cruel twist of fate, her high school boyfriend Michael Douglas, a popular football star, had just entered one of the town's most dangerous intersections driving another vehichle, when Laura's car slammed into it.
Douglas suffered a broken neck and was DOA at Midland Memorial hospital. Laura was unhurt while a girlfriend riding with her suffered only minor injuries. Exacerbating the tragedy, Douglas' dad was following his son in a separate car and came upon the accident scene immediately after it happened.
Said a former friend, "We were devastated. Laura stayed out of school for a month or two after the accident." Another old friend told Star, "We never talked to Laura about what happened. Nobody did. She never broached it with me and no one was going to bring it up if she didn't."
Despite the shroud of secrecy that still surrounds the accident, her high school buddies give Laura Bush high marks for the way she's handled herself since. Bill Sallee, who was a good friend of Mike Douglas in the months before he was killed, told Star that Mrs. Bush hasn't let the tragedy keep her from attending high school reunions. |
