Betty Ford
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Betty Ford, White House photo, 1974. |
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (born
April 8,
1918) is the
wife of former American President
Gerald R. Ford and a former
First Lady of the United States from
1974 to
1977.
Betty Bloomer is the third child and only daughter of Hortense Neahr and William Stephenson Bloomer, an industrial supply salesman. She was born in
Chicago, Illinois, and has two older brothers, Robert and William, Jr.
She grew up in
Grand Rapids, Michigan from age three and graduated from Central High School there. She studied
dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio (she graduated from the studio in 1935).
After the
1929 stock market crash, when Betty was eleven, she began
modeling clothes and teaching other children dances such as the
foxtrot,
waltz, and
Big Apple. During the
Great Depression, the independent First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt had a big impact on Betty Bloomer.
When Betty was sixteen, her father died accidentally from
carbon monoxide poisoning. In 1936, Betty completed high school and wanted to pursue her study of dance in
New York. Her mother refused to let her. Instead, Betty attended the
Bennington School of Dance in
Bennington,
Vermont for two summers, where she studied under
Martha Graham. Martha was a tough, demanding teacher who shaped the young Betty Bloomer's life. Betty asked Martha Graham if she could work with her. To Betty's delight, Martha agreed.
Betty Bloomer moved to
Manhattan's
Chelsea section and worked as a fashion model for the
John Robert Powers firm. She modeled hats and dresses to pay for her lessons with Graham. Betty was chosen to be in Martha Graham's auxiliary troupe and even got to perform at
Carnegie Hall.
Betty's mother Hortense was opposed to her daughter's choice of a career and insisted that Betty move home, but Betty resisted. They finally came to a compromise. Betty would return home for six months; if, after that time, nothing worked out for her, Betty would return to New York.
Betty consequently moved back to
Grand Rapids in 1941, becoming
fashion coordinator for
Herpolscheimer's department store. She organized her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids, including to children with
disabilities. She also led an active social life.
Among those she dated was William G. (Bill) Warren, a furniture salesman, whom she had known since she was twelve. Betty's mother and stepfather (Arthur Godwin) did not approve of the match. They eventually agreed â€" reluctantly - to Betty and Bill's marriage, which took place in their home in 1942. They divorced in
1947 on the grounds of incompatibility.
Not long afterward she began dating
Gerald Ford, Jr., college football star and graduate of the University of Michigan and Yale Law School, and soon a candidate for Congress. On
October 15,
1948 she married Gerald Ford, at Grace
Episcopal Church, in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was 30, and he 35.
He was then campaigning for what would be his first of fourteen terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Fords moved to the Virginia suburbs of the
Washington area and lived there for twenty-five years. Jerry rose to become the highest ranking Republican in the House, then was appointed Vice-President in the wake of the
Agnew resignation. The Fords finally relocated again upon the resignation of President
Nixon, when Jerry was sworn in as the 38th
President of the United States, and he and Betty moved into the
White House.
The Fords have three sons and one daughter:
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Michael Gerald Ford (b. 1950) - a minister
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John Gardner "Jack" Ford (b. 1952) - a journalist and public relations consultant
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Steven Meigs Ford (b. 1956) - an actor and rodeo rider
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Susan Elizabeth (Ford) Vance Bales (b. 1957) - a photographer
As of 2005, the Fords have seven grandchildren.
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Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger as Betty Ford looks on. |
Gerald Ford became President in
1974 on the resignation of President
Richard Nixon, who had named Gerald Ford to the
Vice Presidency in
1973.
As First Lady, Betty Ford became quickly known for being willing and eager to speak her mind on a host of issues, both political and otherwise. She was open about the past benefit she had gained from modest
psychiatric treatment, she spoke understandingly about
marijuana use and
premarital sex, and she pointedly stated that she and the President shared the same bed during a televised White House tour. After one especially controversial
60 Minutes interview some
conservatives called her "No Lady" and even demanded her "resignation", but her overall approval rating was at 75%. [
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Betty Ford was also an outspoken advocate of
women's rights. She supported the proposed
Equal Rights Amendment and legalized
abortion. For a time, it was unclear whether Gerald Ford shared his wife's
pro-choice viewpoint. However, he told interviewer
Larry King that he, too, was pro-choice, and had been criticized by conservative forces within the
Republican Party.
Shortly after Betty Ford became First Lady she underwent a
mastectomy for
breast cancer. Her open, honest approach about this helped raise the visibility of a disease that Americans had previously been reluctant to talk about. She additionally became a spokeswoman about the importance of early detection of breast cancer.
Betty Ford was an advocate of the arts while First Lady, and was able to help
Martha Graham become the first dancer to receive the
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In
1978 Betty Ford's family staged an
intervention and forced her to confront her own
alcoholism and
addiction to
opioid analgesics and seek treatment. After her recovery, she established in
1982 the
Betty Ford Center in
Rancho Mirage, California for the treatment of chemical dependency. Again, her open honesty in dealing with substance abuse and recovery led to an improvement in how Americans talked about such matters. The Betty Ford Center was especially attractive to women and celebrities seeking treatment. She recounted this entire process in her
1987 book
Betty: A Glad Awakening.
In
2003 Betty Ford published
Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery.
As of 2005, she remains the active Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Betty Ford Center.
In
1978, Ford published her autobiography
The Times of My Life.
In
1987, Betty Ford was inducted into the
Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
In
1999, President Gerald Ford and Betty Ford were jointly given the
Congressional Gold Medal, "in recognition of their dedicated public service and outstanding humanitarian contributions to the people of the United States of America." Mrs. Ford remains in average to good health for someone of her advanced age. [
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Betty Ford Biography*
American President biographySimple:Betty Ford
