On August 9, 1974, Betty Bloomer Ford was thrust onto the world stage when her . ", McClellan, Michelle L. "Fame through Shame: Women Alcoholics, Celebrity, and Disclosure. During the general election, her busy campaign activity saw the reigniting of her pinched nerve. [99] On May 8, 2003, Ford received the Woodrow Wilson Award in Los Angeles for her public service, awarded by the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution. This is the autobiographical story of the addiction and recovery of former First Lady Betty Bloomer Ford, wife of US President Gerald R. Ford. Ford will be buried alongside her husband, the former president, at his library in Grand Rapids, Mich., she added. Everyone recognizes the namethanks in large part to the Betty Ford Clinic she co-founded in 1982 . [5] At the time they married, Warren worked for his own father in insurance sales. I think its time to bring abortion out of the backwoods and put it in the hospitals, where it belongs. Disregarding criticism to her stance, Ford would remark, Maybe I shouldnt have said it, but I couldnt lie. She supported the equal rights amendment and the legalization of abortion. [3] Ford received support from her family and managed to resume a busy lifestyle. However, Ford simply responded by giving the explanation that it was not something she had tried to hide, but, rather, something she had only not shared with the news media because none of them had broached the topic in their previous questions to her. "[29] She was regarded to be the most politically outspoken first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. She regularly drove her children around to their activities, such as her sons' Little League Baseball games and her daughter's dance classes. [7][36] While President Ford never attempted to silence his wife, some of his senior staff resented her independent candor. Married and divorced in her 20s, in 1947 her life changed forever when she met Gerald R. Ford. Ford took these stances despite recognizing that they created a political risk of conservative backlash against her husband. [21] Ford would, ultimately, for most of the nine months she was second lady, be a high-profile public figure. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy. 9 min read. For years after leaving the White House, Ford continued to enjoy great influence and popularity, continuing to rank in the top-ten of Gallup's annual most admired woman poll every year through 1991. [94] The amendment did not receive enough states' ratification. They married in 1948, two weeks before he was elected to his first term in Congress. "My understanding is it was natural causes. Leadership: Theory and Practice. She visited states, including Illinois, where ratification was believed to have the most realistic chance of passing. The American public ranked Ford as the eighth-greatest among these first ladies. She served as the honorary president of the National Lupus Foundation, regarding lupus as a disease which impacted women, yet received minimal public attention. She got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimer's, a local department store. Betty Ford Biography Betty Ford, the United States' first lady, was born on April 8, 1918. Kalb shares a few things you may not know about the 38th . A contrast was publicly drawn between Ford and Nancy Reagan, the wife of Ford's primary election challenger Ronald Reagan. The Betty Ford Center, which already has helped change the lives of thousands of people, will be her lasting legacy of care and concern. Betty White's cause of death has been revealed.. If she could help women win full equal rights with men under the U.S. Constitution, Betty Ford wanted to give it her all. After leaving. Her own battle with breast cancer led to her advocacy for early breast cancer detection. Article continues below advertisement. Ford died Friday at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., ABC News has learned. [19] Ford lobbied state legislatures to ratify the amendment, and took on opponents of the amendment. You may not think that creating a humane, healing environment for people with addiction is a remarkable concept. [67] 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". "[7], Betty and Gerald Ford had four children together: Michael Gerald Ford (born 1950), John Gardner Ford (nicknamed Jack; born 1952), Steven Meigs Ford (born 1956), and Susan Elizabeth Ford (born 1957). At the time Betty Ford, the wife of former President Gerald Ford, was one of the most admired women in the United States. Days later, Ford also disclosed to the public that she had come to realize that she was additionally an alcoholic. Weeks after Ford became first lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer on September 28, 1974, after having been diagnosed with the disease. July 8, 2011 -- Betty Ford, wife of former President Gerald Ford and the founder of the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction, has died at age 93. [3][24] Ford was the only individual in attendance at the funeral not directly ingrained in the civil rights movement, with the exception of Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. The official cause of death listed on the Los Angeles County document obtained by CNN . "[28] Ford ultimately became a popular and impactful first lady. [34] Ford's popularity often was higher than her husband's. Ford also publicly expressed admiration and friendship toward First Lady Pat Nixon. Throughout her post-Washington life, she established herself as one of the nation's first public advocates for women's self-examination, a prodigious fund-raiser for arthritis research, and, most important, a tireless campaigner for the rights and dignity of those afflicted with the disease of substance abuse. A mutual friend, Peg Neuman, suggested to Gerald that he should ask her out, so he called her. She was also the Second Lady of the United States from 1973 to 1974, when Ford served as the 40th U.S. vice president. [115] That same year, Ford received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, presented by her husband, President Gerald Ford, an Academy Awards Council member. [3][19] Ford also posed for newspaper publicity photographs and was a clothing model for charity fashion shows, after a Republican had urged her to do so since they felt that Democratic Party spouses had far outnumbered Republican spouses in such publicity-generating activity. [3], Between Labor Day and election day, for the general election campaign, Ford conducted multi-stop speaking tours, during which she visited western states (including California, Colorado, Texas, and Utah) as well was northern midwest states including Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. [69] At the state dinners of the Ford presidency, the president and first lady always led off the dancing, and dancing often lasted beyond midnight. [21], Both Betty and Gerald Ford refuse to comment on speculation that President Nixon might be forced out of office due to the Watergate scandal. ", This page was last edited on 14 January 2023, at 22:04. She studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in 1935. Helping others overcome addiction became her chief cause. Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford all smoked cigarettes but were never photographed doing so. [3][19] Ford took doses of this medication in excess of her prescription. [19] Ford had, particularly, become addicted to prescription medication (opioid analgesics) that she had been originally prescribed in the early 1960s to treat a pinched nerve. The LA County death . Her acceptance speech spoke hopefully of the prospect that attitudes towards HIV/AIDS would shift, being de-stigmatized as cancer and alcoholism had (in part due to her contribution). For state dinners held using this tent, the receptions, entertainment, and dancing portions of the evenings were still held inside of the White House. [19] Ford said, during her husband's failed 1976 presidential campaign, "I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers. Mrs. Since the 1960s, even before she was the first lady, Betty took prescription opioid painkillers for a pinched nerve and severe arthritic pain. Betty Ford was a former First Lady of the United States (August 9th, 1974 - January 20th, 1977). The November 12, 1974 state dinner for Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky saw the first instance in which a wine from the Fords' home state of Michigan was served at a White House state dinner, with wine from the Tabor Hill Winery being served. Betty Ford saw her role in the White House as official hostess and a goodwill ambassador. July 12, 2011 She was married to Gerald Ford for 58 years. With Betty Ford you had a progressive woman . Gena Rowlands won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Ford. [25] The first of these came only a week into Ford's presidency, hosting King Hussein of Jordan on August 16, 1974. John Robert Greene. [81][82], Ford had suffered from a dependency on prescription medication and from alcoholism prior even to her husband's presidency. After being accepted by Graham as a student in 1940, Bloomer moved to New York to live in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood; she worked as a fashion model for the John Robert Powers firm in order to finance her dance studies. [105] In the 2014 Siena Research Institute survey survey, Ford and her husband were ranked the 19th-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple". By the time Betty Ford became first lady in August 1974the month her husband, Gerald Ford, succeeded Richard Nixon the former dancer had already been taking prescription pills for years to. [96], On November 18, 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. White's death was confirmed Friday by Jeff Witjas, her longtime agent and friend. [7], In May 1975, during a four-day trip,[62] Ford met with former Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam Nguyn Cao K to discuss Southeast Asia refugees. [7], Ford supported numerous charities as first lady. When did Betty Ford die? [3] After the interview aired, a number of Ford's remarks in this interview on hot-button issues generated particularly immense media attention. [61], Ford successfully lobbied her husband to, in 1975, sign an executive order to establish the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. "[3], At the time her husband assumed the presidency, reporters speculated on what kind of first lady Ford would be, as they thought her predecessor, Pat Nixon, as noted by one reporter, to be the "most disciplined, composed first lady in history. President Obama noted how Betty Ford "distinguished herself through her courage and compassion. Reactions to Ford's death came in quickly from subsequent occupants of the White House. Ford had weekly meetings with a psychiatrist approximately between August 1965 and April 1967. Since she passed, fans have wondered what Betty White's cause of death was and how she died three weeks before her 100th birthday. [3], Ford campaigned actively both during primary elections and the general election. [33], Steinhauer of The New York Times described Ford as "a product and symbol of the cultural and political timesdoing the Bump dance along the corridors of the White House, donning a mood ring, chatting on her CB radio with the handle First Mamaa 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. [3][97] In 1999, she and President Ford were jointly awarded Congressional Gold Medals. Ford was born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer in 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, the third child and only daughter of Hortense (ne Neahr; 1884 - 1948) and William Stephenson Bloomer Sr. (1874 - 1934), who was a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co. She was called Betty as a child.. Hortense and William married on November 9, 1904, in Chicago. Emergency responders, including police, showed up at her home Friday morning as a standard procedure. Betty Ford dies at 93; former first lady. [84] When she attended the 1992 Republican National Convention, Ford wore an AIDS ribbon pin. And I loved pills. The organization sought to bring together political spouses and female government federal employees to discuss current party activates and ideas about legislation. Ford had declared that she would be accompanying her husband at campaign functions, "when he wants me to. [47] Kennerly has touted the image as both capturing Ford's personality and being a symbolic image showing the feminist first lady posing in what had conventionally been a room occupied predominantly by white men. In attendance were former president Bill Clinton, former vice president Dick Cheney and former first lady Barbara Bush. [19], In 1977, the Fords moved to Rancho Mirage, California. Betty Ford (1918-2011) was the wife of Gerald Ford, who was the 38th president of the United States between 1974 and 1977. [3], Before the end of December, Ford played a role in establishing the Republican Women's Federal Forum, partnering with Barbara Bush, whose husband George H. W. Bush was chairman of the Republican National Committee at the time. Betty Ford, or Elizabeth Anne Ford, was the wife of the 38th U.S. president, Gerald Ford, and thus the First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. Some women protested Ford's lobbying for the ERA by carrying placards outside of the White House reading "Betty Ford, Get Off the Phone". Betty Ford, the former First Lady of the United States who died on July 8 aged 93, exemplified the American virtue of positive thinking to overcome illness and addiction, and used her . She further taught ballroom dancing lessons for children with visual impairment and hearing loss and gave weekly dance lessons to African American children. [8], When Bloomer was 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family's garage while working under their car, despite the garage doors being open. Gerald Ford: Gerald Ford was president of the United States between 1974 and 1977. TMZ was the first to report the news.. A cerebrovascular accident, commonly known as a stroke, is a loss of blood flow to part of the brain, which damages brain tissue. [5], In 1936, after graduating from high school, Bloomer proposed continuing her study of dance in New York City, but her mother refused on account of the relatively recent loss of her husband. No one confronted life's struggles with more fortitude or honesty, and as a result, we all learned from the challenges she faced. They took away my tension and my pain". Elizabeth Anne "Betty" Bloomer Ford was the widow of former United States President Gerald R. Ford and served as the First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. Ford was credited with rejuvenating the ERA movement and inspiring more women to continue working for the ERA. [61] Her active political role prompted Time to call her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and was the reason they profiled her, among several others, to represent the "American Women" as the magazine's 1975 Person of the Year. The series is all set to release on the OTT platform on the 9th of May. Shortly after becoming president in 1974, Ford said, "I am indebted to no man and to only one woman, my dear wife.". The series lovers highly anticipate the show and are peculiar to know about Betty Ford's first husband. Betty Ford, the former first lady whose triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center in California, died at age. "I certainly did not want it, and neither did our children. In this statement, she also praised the reputation of the hospital's addiction treatment program, and declared her pleasure to have the opportunity to attend the treatment. As we told you back in 2020, Betty rarely left her home once the COVID-19 pandemic began.. [3] At one point, Ford disclosed to the public that her husband had previously promised her that he would retire from the House of Representatives in 1976 in order to return to private legal practice and dedicate more time to his family. Betty developed a passion for dance at an early age. "When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines," she told Time. [18], Ford served as a parent-teacher association member, Sunday school teacher at Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, and a Cub Scout "den mother". She was raised by her parents William and Hortense Bloomer. "[34] Ford was open about the benefits of psychiatric treatment, and spoke understandingly about marijuana use and premarital sex. 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