HOUSTON – A photo documents the day President George H.W. Bush gave someone the shirt off of his back.
It was taken sometime after Bush left the White House in 1993.
Officer Ray Hunt was working an extra job at a fundraiser as people paid for photos with the former president.
"And he goes, ‘Officer, would you like a photo too?’ And I said, it was $100. I don't have $100. And he said, ‘No, come take it!’" Hunt said.
The president took the photo with Hunt, who is a past president of the Houston Police Officer’s Union.
Bush offered Hunt a maroon shirt, just like he was wearing in the photo, but they ran out.
"He left. He came back with a different shirt on and he handed me that shirt that he was wearing. The president literally gave me the shirt off of his back," Hunt said.
In the years that followed, the Bushes supported Houston police.
In one photo, they wore the blue “Pray for Peace” bracelets. They even made the photo their Christmas card. But the real salute came one day when longtime Houston police officer Alvie Buzzsaw Jones was directing traffic in the Galleria.
“He was in the Marines and he saw the motorcade leave from there. And he stood to the side. He stood at attention. And said he would never forget. The motorcade stopped, the back window rolled down, it was President Bush was in the car. And President Bush saluted him back,” Hunt said.
Bush offered one last salute to the officer in the officer’s final days.
“He was dying on his deathbed in Diball, Texas, and told his son how important that was to him. I sent a note to Jim McGrath that he had told me that story. Jim McGrath got him to write him a quick letter and I handed it to Alvie Buzzsaw Jones and he got to read that and see that Bush had signed that just before Alvie passed away,” Hunt said.
Memories like these, of kind gestures from a family that once lived in the White House and returned to make our city home, embracing our residents and saluting our officers.
“I’m glad we have Bush Airport. I’m glad we have a George Bush statue standing in the park. I hope that people never forget the Bushes,” Hunt said.