Betty Ford
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011), better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States
from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency
of her husband Gerald Ford
. As First Lady, she was active in social policy and created precedents as a politically active presidential wife.
Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings despite opposition from some conservative Republicans
who objected to her more moderate and liberal positions on social issues. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy
and was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA). Pro-choice
on abortion and a leader in the Women's Movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on every hot-button issue of the time, including feminism, equal pay
, the ERA, sex, drugs, abortion
, and gun control
. She also raised awareness of addiction
when she announced her long-running battle with alcoholism in the 1970s.
Following her White House years, she continued to lobby for the ERA and remained active in the feminist movement. She is the founder, and served as the first chair of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Center
for substance abuse and addiction and is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal (co-presentation with her husband, Gerald R. Ford, October 21, 1998) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
(alone, presented 1991, by George H. W. Bush
).
, Illinois
, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co., and his wife, Hortense (née Neahr; July 11, 1884 – November 20, 1948). Her two older brothers were Robert and William Jr. After living briefly in Denver, Colorado
, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan
, where she graduated from Central High School
.
After the 1929 stock market crash
, when Ford was age 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children dances such as the foxtrot
, waltz
, and big apple
. She also entertained and worked with children with disabilities at the Mary Free Bed Home for Crippled Children. She studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in 1935.
When Ford was age 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning
in the family's garage while working under their car, despite the garage doors being open. He died the day before his 60th birthday.
In 1936, after she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in New York City
, New York
, but her mother refused. Instead, she attended the Bennington School of Dance
in Bennington, Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under director Martha Hill
with choreographers Martha Graham
and Hanya Holm
. After being accepted by Graham as a student, Ford moved to New York City to live in its Manhattan
borough's
Chelsea neighborhood and worked as a fashion model for the John Robert Powers
firm in order to finance her dance studies. She joined Graham's auxiliary troupe and eventually performed with the company at Carnegie Hall
in New York City.
Her mother opposed her daughter's choice of a career and insisted that she move home, but Ford resisted. They finally came to a compromise: she would return home for six months, and if she still wanted to return to New York City at the end of the six months, her mother would not protest further. Ford became immersed in her life in Grand Rapids and did not return to New York City. Her mother remarried to family friend and neighbor, Arthur Meigs Goodwin, and Ford lived with them. She got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimer's
, a local department store
, as well as organizing her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids.
In 1942, she married William C. Warren, who worked for his father in insurance sales, and whom she had known since she was 12. Warren began selling insurance for another company shortly after, later he worked for Continental Can Co., and after that Widdicomb Furniture, and the couple moved frequently because of his work. At one point, they lived in Toledo, Ohio
, where she was employed at the department store Lasalle & Koch
as a demonstrator, a job that entailed being a model and saleswoman. She worked a production line for a frozen-food company in Fulton
, New York, and once back in Grand Rapids returned to work at Herpolsheimer's, this time as "The" Fashion Coordinator. Warren was an alcoholic and in poor health. Just after Betty decided to file for divorce, he went into a coma. She took care of him for another two years as he convalesced, at his family's home. She stayed upstairs while he was nursed downstairs. Then when he recovered they were finally divorced on September 22, 1947, on the grounds of "excessive, repeated cruelty". They had no children.
On October 15, 1948, she married Gerald Ford, a lawyer and World War II
veteran, at Grace Episcopal Church, in Grand Rapids. Gerald Ford was then campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives
, and the wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, as The New York Times
reported, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."
Married for fifty-eight years until his death, the couple had three sons: Michael Gerald Ford
(born 1950), John Gardner Ford
(nicknamed Jack; born 1952), Steven Meigs Ford
(born 1956), and a daughter, Susan Elizabeth Ford
(born 1957). She never spanked or hit her children, believing that there were better, more constructive ways to deal with discipline and punishment.
The Fords moved to the Virginia
suburbs of Washington, D.C.
, and lived there for twenty-five years. Gerald Ford rose to become the highest-ranking Republican in the House, then was appointed Vice President to Richard Nixon
when Spiro Agnew
resigned from that position in 1973. He became president in 1974, upon Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal
.
They were among the more openly affectionate First Couples in American history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal respect, and they were known to have a strong personal and political partnership.
When compared to her predecessor, Pat Nixon
, who was noted by one reporter to be the "most disciplined, composed first lady in history", reporters questioned what kind of first lady Ford would be. In the opinion of The New York Times and several presidential historians, "Mrs. Ford's impact on American culture may be far wider and more lasting than that of her husband, who served a mere 896 days, much of it spent trying to restore the dignity of the office of the president."
The paper went on to describe her as "a product and symbol of the cultural and political times — doing the Bump
dance along the corridors of the White House, donning a mood ring
, chatting on her CB radio with the handle First Mama — a housewife who argued passionately for equal rights for women, a mother of four who mused about drugs, abortion and premarital sex aloud and without regret." In 1975, in an interview with McCall's
, Ford said that she was asked just about everything, except for how often she and the president had sex. "And if they'd asked me that I would have told them," she said, adding that her response would be, "As often as possible."
She was open about the benefits of psychiatric treatment, and spoke understandingly about marijuana
use and premarital sex
, and as a new First Lady pointedly stated during a televised White House tour that she and the President shared the same bed. After Ford appeared on 60 Minutes
in a characteristically candid interview in which she discussed how she would counsel her daughter if she was having an affair
, saying that she "would not be surprised," and the possibility that her children may have experimented with marijuana. Some conservatives
called her "No Lady" and even demanded her "resignation", but her overall approval rating was at seventy-five percent. As she later said, during her husband's failed 1976 presidential campaign, "I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers."
During her time as First Lady, Ford was also an outspoken advocate of women's rights
and was a prominent force in the Women's Movement of the 1970s. She supported the proposed ERA and lobbied state legislatures to ratify the amendment, and took on opponents of the amendment. She was also un-apologetically pro-choice
and her active political role prompted Time
to call her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and name her a Woman of the Year in 1975, representing American women along with other feminist icons.
For a time, it was unclear whether Gerald Ford shared his wife's pro-choice
viewpoint. However, in December 1999, he told interviewer Larry King
that he, too, was pro-choice and had been criticized for that stance by conservative forces within the Republican Party
.
for breast cancer
on September 28, 1974 resulting in her being diagnosed with the disease. Ford decided to be open about her cancer because "There had been so much cover-up during Watergate
that we wanted to be sure there would be no cover-up in the Ford administration" Her openness about her illness raised the visibility of a disease that Americans had previously been reluctant to talk about. "When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines," she told Time
. "But the fact that I was the wife of the President put it in headlines and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person — maybe more." Further amplifying the public awareness of breast cancer
were reports that several weeks after Ford's cancer surgery, Happy Rockefeller
, the wife of vice president Nelson Rockefeller
, also underwent a mastectomy. The spike in women self-examining
after Ford went public with the diagnosis led to an increase in reported cases of breast cancer, a phenomenon known as the "Betty Ford blip".
receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom
in 1976. She received an award from Parsons The New School for Design
in recognition of her style.
in the 1976 Presidential election
she delivered her husband's concession speech because he lost his voice while campaigning.
in 1977, she continued to lead an active public life. In addition to founding the Betty Ford Center
, she remained active in women's issues taking on numerous speaking engagements and lending her name to charities for fundraising.
and forced her to confront her alcoholism and an addiction to opioid
analgesic
s that had been prescribed in the early 1960s for a pinched nerve. "I liked alcohol," she wrote in her 1987 memoir. "It made me feel warm. And I loved pills. They took away my tension and my pain". In 1982, after her recovery, she established the Betty Ford Center
(initially called the Betty Ford Clinic) in Rancho Mirage, California
, for the treatment of chemical dependency. She co-authored with Chris Chase
a 1987 book about her treatment, Betty: A Glad Awakening. In 2003, Ford produced another book, Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery.
In 2005, Ford relinquished her chair of the center's board of directors to her daughter Susan. She had held the top post at the center since its founding. Her husband joked about how she had been chairperson of the board while he had only been a president.
appointed Ford to the second National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year
(the first had been appointed by President Ford). That same year, she joined First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson
and Rosalynn Carter
to open and participate in the National Women's Conference
in Houston, Texas
, where she endorsed measures in the convention's National Plan of Action, a report sent to the state legislatures, the U.S. Congress
, and the President on how to improve the status of American women. As she was during her years in the White House, Ford continued to be an outspoken supporter of equal pay, breast cancer awareness, and the ERA throughout her life.
In 1978, the deadline for ratification of the ERA was extended from 1979 to 1982, resulting largely from a march of a hundred thousand people on Pennsylvania Avenue
in Washington. The march was led by prominent feminist leaders, including Ford, Bella Abzug
, Elizabeth Chittick
, Betty Friedan
and Gloria Steinem
. In 1981, Eleanor Smeal
, the National Organization for Women
's president, announced Ford's appointment to be the co-chair, with Alan Alda
, of the ERA Countdown Campaign. As the deadline approached, Ford led marches, parades and rallies for the ERA with other feminists including First Daughter Maureen Reagan
and various Hollywood actors. Ford was credited with rejuvenating the ERA movement and inspiring more women to continue working for the ERA and visited states, including Illinois, where ratification was believed to have the most realistic chance of passing. In 2004, she reaffirmed her pro-choice stance and her support for the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court
decision in Roe v. Wade
and reaffirmed her belief in and support for the ratification of the ERA.
In 1987, Ford underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery
and recovered without complications.
In November 18, 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
by President George H.W. Bush and a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
On May 8, 2003, Ford received the Woodrow Wilson Award in Los Angeles for her public service from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution.
During these years, she and her husband resided in Rancho Mirage and in Beaver Creek, Colorado
.
Gerald Ford died, age 93, at their Rancho Mirage home of heart failure on December 26, 2006. Despite her advanced age and frail physical condition, Ford traveled across the country and took part in the funeral events in California, Washington, D.C., and Michigan.
Following her husband's death, Ford continued to live in Rancho Mirage. At age 93, she was the oldest surviving former occupant of the White House
. She was also the third longest-lived first lady behind Bess Truman
and Lady Bird Johnson
. Poor health and increasing frailty due to operations in August 2006 and April 2007 for blood clots in her legs caused her to largely curtail her public life. Her ill health prevented her from attending Johnson's funeral in July 2007; Ford's daughter Susan represented her mother at the funeral service.
Gerald and Betty Ford were the first U.S. President and First Lady to both live into their nineties. Bess Truman
and Lady Bird Johnson
lived into their nineties but their husbands Harry S. Truman
and Lyndon B. Johnson
did not. Herbert Hoover
and John Adams
both lived into their nineties but their wives Lou Henry Hoover
and Abigail Adams
did not. On April 8, 2011, Ford turned 93, the same age that her late husband, President Ford reached on his last birthday, July 14, 2006. On July 6, 2011, former First Lady Nancy Reagan
turned 90, and thus she and her husband, former President Ronald Reagan
, joined the Fords as the second first couple to both live into their nineties.
in Rancho Mirage, aged 93.
Funeral services were held in Palm Desert, California
, on July 12, 2011, with over 800 people in attendance, including former president George W. Bush
, First Lady Michelle Obama
and former first ladies Rosalynn Carter
, Nancy Reagan
and Hillary Rodham Clinton
. Rosalynn Carter
, Cokie Roberts
and Geoffrey Mason, a member of the Board of the Betty Ford Center delivered eulogies.
On July 13, her casket was flown to Grand Rapids where it lay in repose at the Gerald Ford Museum
overnight.
On July 14, a second service was held at Grace Episcopal Church with eulogies given by Lynne Cheney
, former Ford Museum director Richard Norton Smith and son, Steven. In attendance were former President Bill Clinton
, former Vice President Dick Cheney
and former first lady Barbara Bush
. In her remarks, Mrs. Cheney noted that July 14 would have been Gerald Ford's 98th birthday. After the service, she was buried next to her husband on the museum grounds.
Former President Clinton had been scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., meet his wife, and travel to the service in Palm Springs. However, a mechanical problem caused his plane to be delayed and, after discussing the situation, they agreed that she would leave without him in order to arrive on time.
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
of her husband Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
. As First Lady, she was active in social policy and created precedents as a politically active presidential wife.
Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings despite opposition from some conservative Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
who objected to her more moderate and liberal positions on social issues. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
and was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal Rights Amendment
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
(ERA). Pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
on abortion and a leader in the Women's Movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on every hot-button issue of the time, including feminism, equal pay
Equal pay for women
Equal pay for women is an issue regarding pay inequality between men and women. It is often introduced into domestic politics in many first world countries as an economic problem that needs governmental intervention via regulation...
, the ERA, sex, drugs, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, and gun control
Gun control
Gun control is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale, and/or use of guns or other firearms by private citizens...
. She also raised awareness of addiction
Substance use disorder
Substance use disorders include substance abuse and substance dependence. In DSM-IV, the conditions are formally diagnosed as one or the other, but it has been proposed that DSM-5 combine the two into a single condition called "Substance-use disorder"....
when she announced her long-running battle with alcoholism in the 1970s.
Following her White House years, she continued to lobby for the ERA and remained active in the feminist movement. She is the founder, and served as the first chair of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Center
Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center , is a non-profit, separately licensed residential chemical dependency recovery hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, that offers inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions as well as prevention and education programs for family and children...
for substance abuse and addiction and is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal (co-presentation with her husband, Gerald R. Ford, October 21, 1998) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
(alone, presented 1991, by George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
).
Early life and career
She was born Elizabeth Ann Bloomer in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co., and his wife, Hortense (née Neahr; July 11, 1884 – November 20, 1948). Her two older brothers were Robert and William Jr. After living briefly in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, where she graduated from Central High School
Central High School (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Central High School, founded in 1911, is a public high school located at 421 Fountain Street NE in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The high school offers classes for grades 9-12. The school colors are Gold and Black and the school mascot is the Ram.-History:...
.
After the 1929 stock market crash
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
, when Ford was age 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children dances such as the foxtrot
Foxtrot (Dance)
The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
, and big apple
Big Apple (dance)
The Big Apple is both a partner dance and a circle dance that originated in the Afro-American community of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century.- Origin :...
. She also entertained and worked with children with disabilities at the Mary Free Bed Home for Crippled Children. She studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in 1935.
When Ford was age 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs after enough inhalation of carbon monoxide . Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect...
in the family's garage while working under their car, despite the garage doors being open. He died the day before his 60th birthday.
In 1936, after she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, but her mother refused. Instead, she attended the Bennington School of Dance
American Dance Festival
The American Dance Festival is a six and four-week school for dance and a six-week summer festival of modern dance performances, currently held at Duke University and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, North Carolina....
in Bennington, Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under director Martha Hill
Martha Hill
Martha Hill was one of the most influential American dance instructors in history. She was the first Director of Dance at the Juilliard School, and held that position for almost 35 years.-Biography:...
with choreographers Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
and Hanya Holm
Hanya Holm
Hanya Holm is known as one of the “Big Four” founders of American modern dance...
. After being accepted by Graham as a student, Ford moved to New York City to live in its Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
borough's
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
Chelsea neighborhood and worked as a fashion model for the John Robert Powers
John Robert Powers
John Robert Powers was an American actor and founder of a prominent New York City modeling agency.In 1923, John Robert Powers founded a modeling agency. The John Robert Powers Agency represented many models who went on to success in the Hollywood film industry, and even Betty Bloomer who became...
firm in order to finance her dance studies. She joined Graham's auxiliary troupe and eventually performed with the company at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in New York City.
Her mother opposed her daughter's choice of a career and insisted that she move home, but Ford resisted. They finally came to a compromise: she would return home for six months, and if she still wanted to return to New York City at the end of the six months, her mother would not protest further. Ford became immersed in her life in Grand Rapids and did not return to New York City. Her mother remarried to family friend and neighbor, Arthur Meigs Goodwin, and Ford lived with them. She got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimer's
Herpolsheimer's
Herpolsheimer's was a department store company in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A. with an additional location named Hardy-Herpolsheimer's inMuskegon, Michigan...
, a local department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
, as well as organizing her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids.
Marriages and family
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
, where she was employed at the department store Lasalle & Koch
Lasalle & Koch
Lasalle & Koch Co. or Lasalle's was a department store in Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A., with branches in some nearby communities.-History:The Lasalle & Koch Company opened its flagship downtown Toledo at 513 Adams Street in 1918. The company was purchased by R.H. Macy & Co...
as a demonstrator, a job that entailed being a model and saleswoman. She worked a production line for a frozen-food company in Fulton
Fulton, New York
Fulton is the name of some places in the U.S. state of New York:*Fulton, Oswego County, New York*Fulton, Schoharie County, New York*Fulton County, New York...
, New York, and once back in Grand Rapids returned to work at Herpolsheimer's, this time as "The" Fashion Coordinator. Warren was an alcoholic and in poor health. Just after Betty decided to file for divorce, he went into a coma. She took care of him for another two years as he convalesced, at his family's home. She stayed upstairs while he was nursed downstairs. Then when he recovered they were finally divorced on September 22, 1947, on the grounds of "excessive, repeated cruelty". They had no children.
On October 15, 1948, she married Gerald Ford, a lawyer and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran, at Grace Episcopal Church, in Grand Rapids. Gerald Ford was then campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, and the wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, as The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."
Married for fifty-eight years until his death, the couple had three sons: Michael Gerald Ford
Michael Gerald Ford
Michael Gerald Ford is the oldest of four children of former U.S. president Gerald R. Ford and his wife Betty Ford.He is a minister, and leads the Office of Student Development, which oversees all student organizations at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
(born 1950), John Gardner Ford
John Gardner Ford
John "Jack" Gardner Ford is the second child and second son of U.S. President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.In 1977, with William Randolph Hearst III and Jann Wenner, he was part of the founding staff of the magazine Outside...
(nicknamed Jack; born 1952), Steven Meigs Ford
Steven Ford
Steven Meigs Ford is an American actor and son of former United States President Gerald Ford and Former First Lady Betty Bloomer Ford.-Early life:...
(born 1956), and a daughter, Susan Elizabeth Ford
Susan Ford
Susan Elizabeth Ford Bales is an American author, photojournalist, and former chairman of the board of the Betty Ford Center for alcohol and drug abuse.-Youth:...
(born 1957). She never spanked or hit her children, believing that there were better, more constructive ways to deal with discipline and punishment.
The Fords moved to the Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and lived there for twenty-five years. Gerald Ford rose to become the highest-ranking Republican in the House, then was appointed Vice President to Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
when Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
resigned from that position in 1973. He became president in 1974, upon Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
.
They were among the more openly affectionate First Couples in American history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal respect, and they were known to have a strong personal and political partnership.
National power, influence, and candor
Pat Nixon
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. She was commonly known as Patricia or Pat Nixon.Born in Nevada, Pat Ryan grew up in Los Angeles, California...
, who was noted by one reporter to be the "most disciplined, composed first lady in history", reporters questioned what kind of first lady Ford would be. In the opinion of The New York Times and several presidential historians, "Mrs. Ford's impact on American culture may be far wider and more lasting than that of her husband, who served a mere 896 days, much of it spent trying to restore the dignity of the office of the president."
The paper went on to describe her as "a product and symbol of the cultural and political times — doing the Bump
Bump (dance)
The bump was a primarily 1970s fad dance introduced by Johnny Spruce in which the main move is to lightly "bump" hips on every other beat of the music. As the dance progressed, the bumping could become more intimate, bumping hip to backside, low bending, etc...
dance along the corridors of the White House, donning a mood ring
Mood ring
A mood ring is a ring which contains a thermochromic element, such as liquid crystal. The ring changes color in response to the body temperature of its wearer...
, chatting on her CB radio with the handle First Mama — a housewife who argued passionately for equal rights for women, a mother of four who mused about drugs, abortion and premarital sex aloud and without regret." In 1975, in an interview with McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...
, Ford said that she was asked just about everything, except for how often she and the president had sex. "And if they'd asked me that I would have told them," she said, adding that her response would be, "As often as possible."
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
use and premarital sex
Premarital sex
Premarital sex is sexual activity, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex, practiced by persons who are unmarried. Although it has always been practiced, in the West it has increased in prevalence since the mid-1950s...
, and as a new First Lady pointedly stated during a televised White House tour that she and the President shared the same bed. After Ford appeared on 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
in a characteristically candid interview in which she discussed how she would counsel her daughter if she was having an affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
, saying that she "would not be surprised," and the possibility that her children may have experimented with marijuana. Some conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
called her "No Lady" and even demanded her "resignation", but her overall approval rating was at seventy-five percent. As she later said, during her husband's failed 1976 presidential campaign, "I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers."
Social policy and political activism
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
and was a prominent force in the Women's Movement of the 1970s. She supported the proposed ERA and lobbied state legislatures to ratify the amendment, and took on opponents of the amendment. She was also un-apologetically pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
and her active political role prompted Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
to call her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and name her a Woman of the Year in 1975, representing American women along with other feminist icons.
For a time, it was unclear whether Gerald Ford shared his wife's pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
viewpoint. However, in December 1999, he told interviewer Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
that he, too, was pro-choice and had been criticized for that stance by conservative forces within the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.
Health and breast cancer awareness
Weeks after Ford became First Lady, she underwent a mastectomyMastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
for breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
on September 28, 1974 resulting in her being diagnosed with the disease. Ford decided to be open about her cancer because "There had been so much cover-up during Watergate
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
that we wanted to be sure there would be no cover-up in the Ford administration" Her openness about her illness raised the visibility of a disease that Americans had previously been reluctant to talk about. "When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines," she told Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
. "But the fact that I was the wife of the President put it in headlines and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person — maybe more." Further amplifying the public awareness of breast cancer
Breast cancer awareness
Breast cancer awareness is an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer and reduce the disease's stigma by educating people about its symptoms and treatment options...
were reports that several weeks after Ford's cancer surgery, Happy Rockefeller
Margaretta Fitler Murphy Rockefeller
Margaretta Large Fitler Murphy Rockefeller , known as Happy Rockefeller, is the widow of Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller , who was the 41st Vice President of the United States of America and a Governor of New York...
, the wife of vice president Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, also underwent a mastectomy. The spike in women self-examining
Breast self-examination
Breast self-examination is a screening method used in an attempt to detect early breast cancer. The method involves the woman herself looking at and feeling each breast for possible lumps, distortions or swelling....
after Ford went public with the diagnosis led to an increase in reported cases of breast cancer, a phenomenon known as the "Betty Ford blip".
The arts
Ford was an advocate of the arts while First Lady and was instrumental in Martha GrahamMartha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...
receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
in 1976. She received an award from Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons The New School For Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is the art and design college of The New School university. It is located in New York City's Greenwich Village, and has produced artists and designers such as Marc Jacobs, Dean and Dan Caten, Norman Rockwell, Donna Karan, Jane...
in recognition of her style.
Conceding the 1976 election
After Gerald Ford's defeat by Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
in the 1976 Presidential election
United States presidential election, 1976
The United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic...
she delivered her husband's concession speech because he lost his voice while campaigning.
Post-White House career
After leaving the White HouseWhite House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in 1977, she continued to lead an active public life. In addition to founding the Betty Ford Center
Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center , is a non-profit, separately licensed residential chemical dependency recovery hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, that offers inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions as well as prevention and education programs for family and children...
, she remained active in women's issues taking on numerous speaking engagements and lending her name to charities for fundraising.
The Betty Ford Center
In 1978, the Ford family staged an interventionIntervention (counseling)
An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...
and forced her to confront her alcoholism and an addiction to opioid
Opioid
An opioid is a psychoactive chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central and peripheral nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract...
analgesic
Analgesic
An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain . The word analgesic derives from Greek an- and algos ....
s that had been prescribed in the early 1960s for a pinched nerve. "I liked alcohol," she wrote in her 1987 memoir. "It made me feel warm. And I loved pills. They took away my tension and my pain". In 1982, after her recovery, she established the Betty Ford Center
Betty Ford Center
The Betty Ford Center , is a non-profit, separately licensed residential chemical dependency recovery hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, that offers inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions as well as prevention and education programs for family and children...
(initially called the Betty Ford Clinic) in Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella...
, for the treatment of chemical dependency. She co-authored with Chris Chase
Chris Chase
Chris Chase, also known by the stage name Irene Kane, is an American model, actor and journalist. Her best-known role is in Killer's Kiss by Stanley Kubrick. She later wrote advice books and co-authored several celebrity autobiographies....
a 1987 book about her treatment, Betty: A Glad Awakening. In 2003, Ford produced another book, Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery.
In 2005, Ford relinquished her chair of the center's board of directors to her daughter Susan. She had held the top post at the center since its founding. Her husband joked about how she had been chairperson of the board while he had only been a president.
Women's movement
Ford continued to be an active leader and activist of the feminist movement after the Ford administration, and continued to strongly advocate and lobby politicians and state legislatures for passage of the ERA. In 1977, President Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
appointed Ford to the second National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year
International Women's Year
International Women's Year was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976–1985, was also established.-International:...
(the first had been appointed by President Ford). That same year, she joined First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
and Rosalynn Carter
Rosalynn Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
to open and participate in the National Women's Conference
National Women's Conference
In the spirit of the United Nations' proclamation that 1975 was the International Women's Year, on January 9, 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford issued Executive Order 11832 creating a National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year "to promote equality between men and women"...
in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, where she endorsed measures in the convention's National Plan of Action, a report sent to the state legislatures, the U.S. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, and the President on how to improve the status of American women. As she was during her years in the White House, Ford continued to be an outspoken supporter of equal pay, breast cancer awareness, and the ERA throughout her life.
In 1978, the deadline for ratification of the ERA was extended from 1979 to 1982, resulting largely from a march of a hundred thousand people on Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
in Washington. The march was led by prominent feminist leaders, including Ford, Bella Abzug
Bella Abzug
Bella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus...
, Elizabeth Chittick
Elizabeth Chittick
Elizabeth Chittick was an American feminist who served as president of the National Woman's Party.Chittick was chairman and president of the National Woman's Party and a leader in the women's movement and for the Equal Rights Amendment...
, Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan was an American writer, activist, and feminist.A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the twentieth century...
and Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s...
. In 1981, Eleanor Smeal
Eleanor Smeal
Eleanor Smeal is a feminist activist, political analyst, lobbyist, and grassroots organizer...
, the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
's president, announced Ford's appointment to be the co-chair, with Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
, of the ERA Countdown Campaign. As the deadline approached, Ford led marches, parades and rallies for the ERA with other feminists including First Daughter Maureen Reagan
Maureen Reagan
Maureen Elizabeth Reagan was the first child of former President Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman...
and various Hollywood actors. Ford was credited with rejuvenating the ERA movement and inspiring more women to continue working for the ERA and visited states, including Illinois, where ratification was believed to have the most realistic chance of passing. In 2004, she reaffirmed her pro-choice stance and her support for the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decision in Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
and reaffirmed her belief in and support for the ratification of the ERA.
Later life
Coronary artery bypass surgery
Coronary artery bypass surgery, also coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and colloquially heart bypass or bypass surgery is a surgical procedure performed to relieve angina and reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease...
and recovered without complications.
In November 18, 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
by President George H.W. Bush and a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
On May 8, 2003, Ford received the Woodrow Wilson Award in Los Angeles for her public service from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution.
During these years, she and her husband resided in Rancho Mirage and in Beaver Creek, Colorado
Beaver Creek, Colorado
Beaver Creek is an unincorporated community in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. Beaver Creek is located immediately south of the town of Avon and encompasses the Beaver Creek Resort and adjacent business, lodging, and residential areas. The U.S...
.
Gerald Ford died, age 93, at their Rancho Mirage home of heart failure on December 26, 2006. Despite her advanced age and frail physical condition, Ford traveled across the country and took part in the funeral events in California, Washington, D.C., and Michigan.
Following her husband's death, Ford continued to live in Rancho Mirage. At age 93, she was the oldest surviving former occupant of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. She was also the third longest-lived first lady behind Bess Truman
Bess Truman
Bess Truman , was the wife of Harry S. Truman and First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953.-Early life:...
and Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
. Poor health and increasing frailty due to operations in August 2006 and April 2007 for blood clots in her legs caused her to largely curtail her public life. Her ill health prevented her from attending Johnson's funeral in July 2007; Ford's daughter Susan represented her mother at the funeral service.
Gerald and Betty Ford were the first U.S. President and First Lady to both live into their nineties. Bess Truman
Bess Truman
Bess Truman , was the wife of Harry S. Truman and First Lady of the United States from 1945 to 1953.-Early life:...
and Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
lived into their nineties but their husbands Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
and Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
did not. Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
and John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
both lived into their nineties but their wives Lou Henry Hoover
Lou Henry Hoover
Lou Henry Hoover was the wife of President of the United States Herbert Hoover and First Lady of the United States, 1929-1933. Mrs. Hoover was president of the Girl Scouts of the USA for two terms, 1922-1925 and 1935-1937....
and Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
did not. On April 8, 2011, Ford turned 93, the same age that her late husband, President Ford reached on his last birthday, July 14, 2006. On July 6, 2011, former First Lady Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
turned 90, and thus she and her husband, former President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, joined the Fords as the second first couple to both live into their nineties.
Death and funeral
Betty Ford died of natural causes on July 8, 2011, at Eisenhower Medical CenterEisenhower Medical Center
The Eisenhower Medical Center is a not-for-profit hospital located in Rancho Mirage, California. It was named one of the top one hundred hospitals in the United States in 2005 and is adjacent to the world-famous Betty Ford Center....
in Rancho Mirage, aged 93.
Funeral services were held in Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census, up from 41,155 at the 2000 census...
, on July 12, 2011, with over 800 people in attendance, including former president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, First Lady Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
and former first ladies Rosalynn Carter
Rosalynn Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
, Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
and Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
. Rosalynn Carter
Rosalynn Carter
Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
, Cokie Roberts
Cokie Roberts
Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Roberts , best known as Cokie Roberts, is an American Emmy Award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She is a contributing senior news analyst for National Public Radio as well as a regular roundtable analyst for the current This Week with Christiane...
and Geoffrey Mason, a member of the Board of the Betty Ford Center delivered eulogies.
On July 13, her casket was flown to Grand Rapids where it lay in repose at the Gerald Ford Museum
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is part of the Presidential Libraries System of the National Archives and Records Administration, a federal agency. Unlike most other presidential libraries and museums, Ford's are two geographically separate buildings. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential...
overnight.
On July 14, a second service was held at Grace Episcopal Church with eulogies given by Lynne Cheney
Lynne Cheney
Lynne Ann Cheney is the wife of former United States Vice President Dick Cheney and served as the Second Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009...
, former Ford Museum director Richard Norton Smith and son, Steven. In attendance were former President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, former Vice President Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
and former first lady Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
. In her remarks, Mrs. Cheney noted that July 14 would have been Gerald Ford's 98th birthday. After the service, she was buried next to her husband on the museum grounds.
Former President Clinton had been scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., meet his wife, and travel to the service in Palm Springs. However, a mechanical problem caused his plane to be delayed and, after discussing the situation, they agreed that she would leave without him in order to arrive on time.
See also
- Feminist Movement in the United States (1963–1982)
- List of breast cancer patients according to occupation
- List of First Ladies of the United States
External links
- Remembering Betty Ford — slideshow by LifeLife (magazine)Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
- Ford, Betty from Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...