Nancy Walker Bush Ellis


Nancy Walker Bush Ellis is the only sister of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and aunt of former President George W. Bush and the former governor of Florida John Ellis "Jeb" Bush. Her parents were Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Media consultant John Prescott Ellis and Josiah "Joe" Ellis, President and CEO of the Denver Broncos, are two of her four children. She is widowed and lives in Boston.

Biography

Nancy Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts. She graduated from Vassar College in 1946. On October 26, 1946, at St. Paul's Church, in Greenwich, Connecticut, she married Alexander Ellis II, an executive with insurance firm Fairfield & Ellis. Wedding guests included James L. Buckley, John V. Lindsay, John Chafee, and Nancy's brother George; Office of Strategic Services agent William B. Macomber, Jr. was best man. She had weekly lunches with her nephew George W. Bush while he attended the Harvard School of Business.
Nancy and Alexander Ellis had a daughter, Nancy Walker Ellis Black, and three sons, Alexander, John, and Josiah.

Political activities

Although she had been a liberal Democrat and an environmentalist who actively fundraised for the NAACP and co-chaired the New England section of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she joined the Republican Party in 1988 when her brother ran for president. In September 2004, when her nephew was running for reelection, she visited London, Paris and Frankfurt on behalf of Republicans Abroad in an effort to encourage United States Republicans living in Europe to register and vote.

Volunteer and charitable activities

Ellis has long volunteered with the Boston United South End Settlement House, of which she is an honorary director. She has also volunteered with the New England Medical Center, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory of Music.
As a board member of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a group that was critical of the George W. Bush administration's widespread encouragement of industry self-regulation, Ellis led fundraising efforts to establish Belize's Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area and the environmental conservation program Programme for Belize. She is also a member of the nongovernmental organization Pact.