George H.W. and Barbara Bush Move to Texas Where George Begins at an Oil Company

George and Barbara Bush moved their young son cross-country to Texas in 1948, where the senior Bush began his career in the oil business as a $375-a-month oil drilling equipment clerk.

He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with his four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Dorothy. Another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953.

As a child, Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas until the family moved to Houston after he completed seventh grade. He then went to The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Houston, for two years.

Bush finished his high school years at Phillips Academy, a boarding school (then all-male) in Andover, Massachusetts, where he played baseball and during his senior year was the head cheerleader.

The Bush family moves to West Texas to pursue the oil boom and settles in Midland. Mr. Bush admits to having no presidential aspirations early on. Instead, he says, "When I was growing up, I wanted to be Willie Mays."