A small wedding, a quiet honeymoon. That’s all Diane Rutledge expected when then-beau Jerry Bryson proposed last year.
Diane and Jerry Bryson pose with President and Laura Bush at the White House in March 2008. The couple were at the White House for Jerry Bryson and Laura Bush’s 44th class reunion. They graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in Midland, Texas. (Photo courtesy of the Brysons.)
It was, after all, the second marriage for both, she having lost her pilot-husband, Phil, in a crop dusting crash; he a widower since wife Debbie died of a brain tumor.
A modest celebration, followed by a week in Hawaii. She asked for Maui.
He gave her the White House.
The couple’s plans for a Hawaiian get-away changed abruptly when, just two months before the wedding, Bryson received an invitation from the President and Mrs. Bush to join them March 29 at the White House for the 44th reunion of Robert E. Lee High School, class of 1964.
Seems that Bryson and Laura Bush — Laura Welch, back then — attended the Midland, Texas high school at the same time, or did until Bryson’s folks moved the family to Bakersfield his senior year.
Bryson ended up graduating from Bakersfield High School, but left his heart in Midland. Fortunately, he also left a forwarding address.
This wasn’t the first time Bryson was invited to party with the Bushes — he and Debbie attended Lee High’s “33 and a Third” class reunion at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, when Bush was governor of Texas.
This time, though, the reunion fell on the same weekend Bryson and his bride were scheduled to marry.
No problem.
The giddy couple, both staunch Republicans, moved their wedding up a week, marrying on March 21. Instead of Maui, they flew to New York, where they spent two days before heading to Washington, D.C.
It turned out to be the trip and time of their lives.
The Brysons spent five days in the nation’s capitol, arriving at the White House in time for a Friday night pre-party and a grand entrance by Bush via presidential helicopter on the South Lawn.
Not all in the crowd of onlookers were there for the reunion. Some, like U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, whom Bryson noticed standing at his elbow, was there with his family for movie night with the president. At least that’s what he told Bryson.
The newlyweds met with the Bushes the following day in the opulent Diplomatic Reception Room, where presidents routinely greet foreign dignitaries, prime ministers and potentates. The Brysons quickly posed with the First Couple for a formal portrait, a nerve racking moment, at least for Diane.
“All I could think about was I had my arm around the president of the United States,” she says.
Once photos were taken — the Bushes posed with each of the few hundred guests in attendance — the party was on.
The classmates danced to the music of the Jelly Rolls, reportedly Mrs. Bush’s favorite band, and feasted on a Texas spread of hors d’oeuvres like mini cheeseburgers, small slices of pizza, diminutive chicken fried steaks and tiny pecan pies.
Taxpayers counting the cost can relax. Attendees paid their own way, $150 a head.
It was a bargain, said the Cinderella couple, who, for one evening of their already memorable honeymoon, reveled in the grandeur and history of what is arguably the world’s most famous residence.
And chatting up the leader of the free world wasn’t bad either, Jerry said.
“After we finished with the pictures, I turned to the president, looked at Diane and said, ‘I did pretty good, didn’t I,’” he said. “Bush smiled and gave me the thumbs up and said, ‘You sure did.’”
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on Jul 4, 2008 at 04:15 PM
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