Waukon native presented her book to Bush...

The recent passing of George H.W. Bush prompted Waukon resident Joanne Liddiard to share this photo (at left) from when her sister-in-law, Waukon native Suzanne Hart O’Regan, met then Vice President Bush when he was campaigning for the U.S. presidency in 1986 in Neenah, WI. The host of one of Bush’s campaign stops had asked O’Regan to present Bush with a copy of her book “Family Letters: A personal selection from Theda Clark’s life”, which was written by O’Regan and featured the life of Theda Clark Peters, daughter of Kimberly-Clark Corporation co-founder Charles B. Clark who helped fund the building of a hospital in Neenah, WI with money designated for a community project in her will after she died from complications three days after giving birth when no hospital was available to her.

Liddiard’s brother, Dr. Thomas O’Regan, has served as an anesthesiologist specialist living in Neenah, WI, and he shared in a phone interview that his wife had shared with him what many others have said about the 41st President of the United States being very personable and cordial, with Dr. O’Regan further sharing that he thought President George H.W. Bush was “one of the best presidents we’ve had.” Dr. O’Regan said he was not available to attend the campaign event himself because he was part of the hospital staff that had to be on-call waiting at the hospital in the event of an emergency when such a dignitary as the Vice President of the United States was in the area. He further shared that he and Suzanne Hart had first met in elementary school when he began attending St. Patrick School in Waukon in the fourth grade after having attended rural school in the Hanover area, and they had “kept in touch”. He and Suzanne, the daughter of former Waukon attorney Sherman Hart and LaVina (Callahan) Hart, have now been married for 52 years. Submitted photo.