At 80, Bush says sky's no limit

HOUSTON - More than 5,000 people helped former President George Bush celebrate his 80th birthday Saturday night, part of a weekend of festivities to be topped with a skydive today.

The skydive will be "very safe. It will be a thrill for me," the nation's 41st president said at a luncheon in his honor Saturday at the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Bush has made four parachute jumps in his life - the first as a Navy pilot shot down over the Pacific during World War II. He has made the other jumps since leaving the White House more than a decade ago, including one on his 75th birthday.

On Saturday night, his son, President George W. Bush was among the political leaders and other guests at his father's birthday gala at Houston's Minute Maid Park. Larry King, Dennis Miller and Bo Derek were among the celebrities.

The party served as a fundraiser for the George Bush Forty-One Endowment, which is trying to raise $30-million to support his presidential library, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and his Points of Light Foundation.

Officials at M.D. Anderson thanked Bush and his wife, Barbara, for their fundraising efforts on behalf of the cancer center by unveiling the Robin Bush Child and Adolescent Clinic. The facility was named for the Bushes' 3-year-old daughter, who died from leukemia in 1953.

The George and Barbara Bush Endowment for Innovative Cancer Research at M.D. Anderson has raised more than $50-million since its founding in 1998.

The elder Bush intends to make his parachute jump today over Texas A&M University in College Station, the home of his presidential library and museum.

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