George H. W. Bush & Barbara Bush Signed Photo w/ Major GOP Fundraiser Katie Boyd

Description

George Bush & Barbara Signed Photo w/ Major GOP Fundraiser Katie Boyd
Original Signatures:
George H. W. Bush
Barbara Bush
Inscription to Katie Boyd and Bill Boyd:
To Katie and Bill Boyd with Best Wishes & Friendship.
Featured in the Photo:
George Bush
Barbara Bush
Katie Boyd
Bill Boyd
Katie Boyd (
Katherine Elkins Boyd)
was a major GOP fundraiser. She was c
onsidered by many to be the grande dame of California Republican politics (for more information on Katie Boyd see below).
Approximate Dimensions:
8 inches x 10 inches
Condition:
This item is used and shows signs of use and wear.  See photos for condition.
Note:
* This photograph is mounted on card stock. As found and purchased by the seller.
Source:  The Mercury News
As Katie Boyd’s sons remember the story, Mom came home saying she met an interesting man at a Los Angeles dinner in 1977. She was so captivated by the man seated next to her, that she advised him to run for president. A year or so later George H.W. Bush called her at home in Hillsborough and said, “I’m running. Will you help me?”
Bush and a long line of high-profile Republican candidates — from local novices to presidential hopefuls — have relied on Mrs. Boyd and her vast network to raise millions for their campaigns. Considered by many to be the grande dame of California Republican politics, Mrs. Boyd, who had been in declining health in the past few months, died on Feb. 10, one day before her 89th birthday.
Since 1980, she raised money for every GOP presidential and California gubernatorial nominee. But Mrs. Boyd, a native San Franciscan who grew up in Monterey and lived for nearly 70 years in Hillsborough, was far more than a fundraiser.
She befriended many of the politicians for whom she dialed for dollars. She visited the Bush family at the White House, Camp David and even their vacation getaway in Kennebunkport, Maine. She swilled wine with President Ronald Reagan. Posed with cigars and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. And she was a guest at several White House state dinners, most recently the 2007 dinner for Queen Elizabeth.
Her political friendships were well documented with many of the photos displayed in a room off the front hallway of her home. They featured a smiling Mrs. Boyd, who in later years sported her trademark large sunglasses and stylish hats; she wore the hats after being treated for skin cancer.
There’s even a playful photo of George H.W. Bush and Schwarzenegger fighting over her during a 2006 fundraiser at her Bridge Road home.
“Kate was a dedicated Republican and very principled,” said former Secretary of State George Shultz. And she lit up a room with her lively personality. “She also made it fun. You always had a good time around Katie. She was a happy warrior.”
On the news of her death, both Bush ex-presidents called the family to extend their condolences.  In a statement, George W. Bush called her a “dear friend.”
“She brightened our lives with her energy and wonderful sense of humor. She was a remarkable woman, and we will miss her.” In addition to raising money for President George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush’s campaign reported that Mrs. Boyd was one of the Top 10 “Pioneer fundraisers” in 2000, raising more than 0,000. Her last major fundraiser for the Republican National Committee, held a year ago, featured Bush.
Her playfulness and sense of humor endeared her to many, not to mention her relentless fundraising.
“I always called her my ‘secret girlfriend,’ ” Schwarzenegger said. He called her the night before she died, saying he planned to visit her at the hospital. “I always told people at fundraisers that they could find out about our secret life in the National Enquirer. She loved that,” recalled the governor. Not only did Mrs. Boyd raise money for his elections and initiative efforts, “she added spice and humor to a process that could get boring.”
Katherine Elkins Boyd was born in San Francisco in 1920, the daughter of Felton and Frances Alder Elkins. Her mother was an internationally known interior decorator, a profession Mrs. Boyd also would choose. She grew up in Monterey, living in the historic Casa Amesti, built by a Spanish don and brother-in-law of Gen. Mariano Vallejo. Later, her interest in preservation and her own memories led her to co-found the Casa Amesti Foundation, which helped save the home for public visits.
As a girl, she would often spend summers in Europe traveling with her mother and roaming Paris in the company of Coco Chanel and Salvador Dali. Her mother’s clients included some of the wealthiest families of Chicago and San Francisco. After her mother’s death in 1953, she founded her own firm and kept many of those clients, particularly along the Peninsula and in Monterey. She had a second home in Pebble Beach and she and her husband, William Sprott Boyd, were avid golfers. William, to whom she was married for 47 years, died in 1994.
Politics became her second love. “She thought of politics as her other family,” said son David Boyd.
She believed in the party and helping worthy candidates, recalled Becky Morgan, a former Peninsula state senator whom Mrs. Boyd helped elect. After political neophyte Morgan beat two former GOP assemblymen in a primary during the mid-1980s, Boyd was impressed and worked hard to get Morgan elected at a time when few women had made it to the state Legislature. “She believed in me,” Morgan said. She was “an incredible help, a prolific fundraiser, very energetic and knew everyone.”
And she was pragmatic, added her good friend Kristen Hueter, also a major Bay Area-based GOP fundraiser. “She didn’t get bogged down in policy,” Hueter said. “That would limit her ability to connect with people.”
A co-founder of the Lincoln Club, Boyd was instrumental in helping launch the political careers of a number of successful moderate Republicans, including Bob Naylor, Tom Campbell and more recently state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-San Luis Obispo.
Those for whom she raised money would often dangle plum party posts or even once an ambassadorship to Belgium in front of Mrs. Boyd, who was fluent in French. The first President Bush appointed her to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in 1990. She also sat on the board of the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute, a libertarian think tank, and she was a trustee of the Bush Presidential Library. She also was a co-chair of the Republican National Committee Eagles, a major fundraising group, and a three-time delegate to the Republican National Convention.
However, elective office did not appeal to her because she hated speaking in public. She also wasn’t interested in government work or moving away from her family, son William said. “If you were sick, she would be there with soup. Even as adults, she would drive over with soup.”
Katherine Elkins Boyd
Born: Feb. 11, 1920, in San Francisco
Died: Feb. 10, 2009, in Burlingame