"All I can say about that (is) it was a very, very, tragic accident I was involved in when I was 17 years old, almost 40-something years ago," Bush said. "It was a terrible accident. It was terrible for everyone involved."

Bush said the grief remains.

"I know this as an adult, and even more as a parent, it was crushing ... for the family involved and for me as well," she said.

Bush would not comment further and quickly resumed talking about her husband.

The accident occurred Nov. 5, 1963, when Bush was talking to a friend while she was driving to a party in her hometown of Midland, Texas, the New York Post reported.

At an intersection, she apparently failed to see her boyfriend, Mike Douglas, driving south. The vehicles collided and Douglas was thrown from his doorless Jeep, breaking his neck. He died instantly.

Midland officials would not release the full accident report, referring Freedom of Information requests for the document to the attorney general of Texas. He has until May 15 to decide if he will make the report public.

An abbreviated version of the report concluded neither Douglas or Bush could be blamed for the accident, the Post reported.

During her campaign visit Thursday, Bush defended her husband against allegations he was anti-Catholic.

"No one has ever thought George was anti-Catholic -- that was a charge of his opponent," Mrs. Bush said. "George has many, many, Catholic friends and supporters."

The Texas governor has been under fire since he recently visited the Christian South Carolina school Bob Jones University. The university president describes Roman Catholicism and Mormonism as cults which call themselves Christian.

Rhode Island is more than two-thirds Catholic, the highest concentration of any state in the country. This week's edition of The Providence Visitor, the newspaper for the Diocese of Providence, condemned the Republican candidates appearance at the Southern school as a "grave error in judgment."

Mrs. Bush was in south Providence to break ground with Rhode Island First Lady Marilyn Almond on a new Habitat for Humanity home that will be built by an all-woman construction team.