FLOTUS: Elizabeth "Betty" Ford Part I

 

Elizabeth Anne Ford (née Bloomer; formerly Warren; April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011) was the First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977, as the wife of President Gerald Ford. As first lady, she was active in social policy and set a precedent as a politically active presidential spouse. Ford also was the second lady of the United States from 1973 to 1974 when her husband was vice president.

Throughout her husband's time in the office of the presidency, she maintained high approval ratings and was considered to be an influential first lady. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy. In addition, she was a passionate supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). As a supporter of abortion rights and a leader in the women's rights movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on the hot-button issues of the time, such as feminism, equal pay, the Equal Rights Amendment, sex, drugs, and abortion. Surveys of historians conducted by the Siena College Research Institute have shown that historians regard Ford to be among the best and most courageous American first ladies.

Following her White House years, she continued to lobby for the ERA and remained active in the feminist movement. Soon after leaving office, she raised awareness of addiction when she sought help and publicly disclosed her long-running struggle with alcoholism and substance abuse. After recovering, she founded and served as the first chair of the board of directors of the Betty Ford Center for Substance Abuse and Addiction. Ford also became involved in causes related to HIV/AIDS. 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.

Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H. W. Bush in 1991. She was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal as a co-recipient with President Ford in 1998.

Early life and career

Ford was born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer in 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, the third child and only daughter of Hortense (née 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. Betty's two older brothers were Robert (d. 1971) and William Jr. After the family lived briefly in Denver, Colorado, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated from Central High School.

In 1926, when she was eight years old, her mother, who valued social graces, enrolled her in the Calla Travis Dance Studio in Grand Rapids, where Ford was taught ballet, tap dancing, and modern movement. Dance developed into a passion for her, and she decided she wanted to seek a career in it. At the age of 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children popular dances, such as the foxtrot, waltz, and big apple, to earn money in the wake of the Great Depression. She 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. While she was still in high school, she started her own dance school, instructing both youth and adults.

Growing up, she was subject to teasing about her surname, with other kids in school calling her "Betty Pants" (a play on "bloomers" being a name for a type of lower-body garment). Bloomer disliked the surname.

When Ford herself began the process of recovering from her own alcoholism, she disclosed to the public that both her father and her brother Bob had suffered from alcoholism as well.

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. He died the day before his 60th birthday. It was never confirmed whether his death had been accidental or a suicide. With her father's passing, her family lost its primary breadwinner, and her mother began working as a real estate agent to support the family. Her mother's actions in the wake of her father's passing are said to have been formative for her views in support of equal pay and gender equality.

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. She instead 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 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 to finance her dance studies. She joined Graham's auxiliary troupe and eventually performed with the company at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Bloomer's mother was opposed to her pursuing a dance career and insisted that she return home, and, as a compromise, they agreed that Bloomer would return home for six months and, if she still wanted to return to New York City at the end of that time, her mother would not protest further. Bloomer became immersed in her life in Grand Rapids and did not return to New York. Her mother remarried, to family friend and neighbor Arthur Meigs Godwin, and Bloomer lived with them. She got a job as an assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimer's, a local department store. She also organized her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids, including the Calla Travis Dance Studio. She further taught ballroom dancing lessons for children with visual impairment and hearing loss and gave weekly dance lessons to African-American children.

Marriage to William G. Warren

In 1942, Elizabeth Bloomer married William G. Warren, whom she had known since she was 12. At the time they married, Warren worked for his own father in insurance sales. Shortly after they married, he began to sell insurance for another company. He later worked for the Continental Can Company, and after that for the Widdicomb Furniture Company. The couple moved frequently because of his work. At one point, they lived in Toledo, Ohio, where Elizabeth 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. When they returned to Grand Rapids, she worked again at Herpolsheimer's, this time as the fashion coordinator. She had, three years into the marriage, concluded that their relationship was a failure. She desired to have a family with children and was unhappy with the frequent moves between cities she had experienced in her marriage. Warren was an alcoholic and diabetic and was in poor health. Shortly after she decided to file for divorce, Warren fell into a coma. She paused her divorce, and supported him, living at Warren's family's home for the next two years as his health recovered. During these two years, she lived upstairs while he was nursed downstairs She worked to support both herself and Warren. This experience has been credited with further cementing Ford's understanding of gender-based income inequalities between individuals doing the same work. After he recovered, they were divorced on September 22, 1947.

Marriage to Gerald Ford and motherhood

In August 1947, she was introduced by mutual friends to Gerald Ford, a lawyer and World War II veteran who had just resumed his legal practice after returning from Navy service and was planning to run for the United States House of Representatives. They married on October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids. Gerald Ford was in the middle of his campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. In the first of adjustments for politics, he had asked her to delay the wedding until shortly before the primary election 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." For their honeymoon, the two briefly traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they attended a college football game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Northwestern Wildcats, before driving to Owosso, Michigan, to attend a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey. The Fords would ultimately be married for the next 58 years, until Gerald Ford's death. An anecdote that was later reported was that, when Gerald Ford left Grand Rapids for Washington, D.C., Betty Ford's new sister-in-law Janet Ford remarked to her, "With Jerry, you'll never have to worry about other women. Your cross will be his work."

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).

The Fords lived in Washington, D.C. after his election, until the spring of 1955, when the Fords moved into a house they constructed in the D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia. Gerald Ford had ambitions to rise to the rank of speaker of the house, and therefore maintained a busy travel schedule, regularly crisscrossing the United States to fundraise and campaign on behalf of other Republicans in hopes that they would, in turn, provide him with the support he'd eventually need to become speaker. This meant that Gerald Ford was away from home for roughly half the year, placing a great burden on Ford to raise their children. As a mother, Ford never spanked or hit her children, believing that there were better, more constructive ways to deal with discipline and punishment.

Ford served as a parent-teacher association member, Sunday school teacher at Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, and a Cub Scout "den mother". She regularly drove her children around to their activities, such as her son's Little League Baseball games and her daughter's dance classes. She was also involved in her husband's political career by fulfilling the commitments expected of congressional spouses to help elevate her husband's regard among his House colleagues. She accompanied her husband to congressional and White House events, as well as on some trips abroad, and made herself available for newspaper and magazine articles. 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. Ford also volunteered for local charitable organizations, including serving as the program director of the Alexandria Cancer Fund Drive. Ford also held active membership in groups such as the 81st Congress Club and the National Federation of Republican Women.

Ford's busy life took a toll. In 1964, a pinched nerve on the left side of Ford's neck sent her to the hospital for two weeks. After her pinched nerve, she began suffering several effects, including muscle spasms, periphrasic neuropathy, numbing on the left side of her neck, and arthritis on her shoulder and arm. She would be given prescription medication, including Valium. Ford would ultimately develop an addiction to prescription medication (and would ultimately confront and recover from this addiction in 1978). Ford's health problems and the stress of her husband's career (which saw him frequently away from their household) compounded, particularly after her husband's career became even more demanding after he became House minority leader in January 1965. In 1965, Ford suffered a significant nervous breakdown, erupting in severe crying that had appeared inexplicable to others. This led her to seek psychiatric assistance. Ford had weekly meetings with a psychiatrist between August 1965 and April 1967. Ford received support from her family and managed to resume a busy lifestyle. However, notably, Ford had not managed to address her increasing prescription pain medication dependency, which sometimes saw her taking as many as twenty pills in a single day. Nor did she address her relationship with alcohol, which she, at the time, believed was typical consumption.

Ford accompanied her husband on a trip to mainland China in 1972. That same year, her husband brought up the possibility that he might retire from Congress in 1977, which would make the 1974 United States House of Representatives election the last he would run for. This prospect elated Ford. Such talk was due to Gerald Ford, following the Republican Party's failure to win a majority in the 1972 United States House of Representatives elections, seeing it as unlikely that he would ever fulfill his ambition of becoming speaker of the House.

Second Lady of the United States (1973–1974)

Spiro Agnew resigned as vice president on October 10, 1973. Two days later, on October 12, 1973, President Richard Nixon nominated Gerald Ford to serve as vice president. Ford felt an obligation to attend her husband's testimony at his confirmation hearings. During his testimony, Gerald Ford was questioned about attending psychiatric care. After this, Betty Ford was transparent with the news media that she had received psychiatric care. She explained that, while her husband had attended two sessions with a psychiatric doctor, those sessions were for her care and not care of his own. Gerald Ford was confirmed as vice president by the United States Congress on December 6, 1973, and Gerald Ford took the oath of office before a joint session of the United States Congress, placing his hand upon a bible that Betty Ford held. With her husband assuming the office of vice president, Ford became the second lady of the United States.

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. The organization sought to bring together political spouses and female government federal employees to discuss current party activates and ideas about legislation. Ford also, in a television interview with Barbara Walters, expressed her support for the United States Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision ruling abortion as constitutionally protected. Ford remarked, "I agree with the Supreme Court's ruling. I think it's time to bring abortion out of the backwoods and put it in the hospitals, where it belongs." Disregarding criticism of her stance, Ford would remark, "Maybe I shouldn't have said it, but I couldn't lie. That's the way I feel."

The media "broke" the story that Ford had a previous marriage and had been divorced, initially reporting it as a secret revelation. However, Ford simply responded by giving the explanation that it was not something that she had tried to hide, but rather, something that she had only neglected to share with the news media because none of them had broached the subject in their previous questions to her. This response proved effective in killing the speculation that she was covering up her past and earned her some admiration in the media. 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. Ford became overwhelmed by the media attention she received and became somewhat reclusive for a period early into her time as second lady. However, by the spring of 1974, Ford was seen as embracing her position as second lady, becoming less reclusive and more active. Ford would, ultimately, for most of the nine months that she was second lady, be a high-profile public figure.

As she became a more active second lady, Ford adopted the objective of promoting the arts. In April 1974, she made her first official solo trip as Second Lady when she spent two days visiting the states of Georgia and Tennessee to help publicize the "ARTRAIN", which was a traveling exhibit of art, visual displays, and performance pieces housed in six railway cars, and which was to travel through small towns across the southern United States. Ford was the most prominent national supporter of the project. Her candor on this trip received a positive reception from the news media. Among those that she met on the two-day trip was Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn. The Carters would, ultimately go on to be the Fords' successors as president and first lady after Jimmy Carter defeated President Ford in the 1976 United States presidential election. On May 31, 1973, Ford made her first major speech when she gave a commencement address to the graduates of the Westminster Choir College. This set a contrast with First Lady Pat Nixon, who routinely rejected invitations to give formal speeches. Ford was also observed to be upgrading her wardrobe, and adding designer clothing. In addition to the arts, Ford also focused on projects helping the disabled during her time as second lady.

On March 12, 1974, the Fords hosted a state dinner for King Hussein of Jordan after President Nixon, with a week's notice, asked Vice President Ford to take over for him in hosting the already-scheduled state dinner. The dinner was held in John Quincy Adams's Drawing Room, one of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the United States Department of State headquarters at the Harry S Truman Building.

In June 1974, Ford attended the funeral of Alberta Williams King, the assassinated mother of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Other Nixon administration official figures did not attend, continuing with other obligations. Ford was the only individual in attendance at the funeral not directly ingrained in the civil rights movement or black politics, except Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. Ford's attendance at the funeral was, in actuality, a break from the administration. Ford had believed it to be of great importance for the administration to show an expression of direct concern about the assassination, while Nixon's staff disagreed with her. Ford also broke from the administration in giving her support to the prospect of federally-funded child daycare, which the Nixon administration opposed.

Ford had an extremely busy schedule by July 1974. Magazines such as Vogue and Ladies Home Journal were planning to publish spreads on Ford in upcoming issues. With her husband, as vice president, tasked with heavily campaigning on behalf of his party for the 1974 midterm elections, Ford occasionally hit the campaign trail herself. Ford had declared that she would be accompanying her husband at campaign functions, "when he wants me to." The Fords had planned to make a diplomatic trip to European nations after the midterm elections.

Both Betty and Gerald Ford refused to comment on speculation that President Nixon might be forced out of office due to the Watergate scandal. Ford did indirectly indicate her willingness to step into the role of the First Lady by affirming that she would make any sacrifices required for her husband to carry out his constitutional obligations but also opined that it would be traumatic if the nation had to endure a president being forced from office. Ford also publicly expressed admiration and friendship toward First Lady Pat Nixon.

First Lady of the United States (1974–1977)

On August 9, 1974, after the resignation of Richard Nixon (who was facing the prospect of likely impeachment and removal from office), Gerald Ford ascended to the position of president of the United States and Betty Ford became the First Lady of the United States. As was the case during Gerald Ford's vice presidential swearing-in, Betty Ford held the Bible upon which he placed his hand while taking his oath of office. In his remarks at his inauguration, Gerald Ford remarked, "I am indebted to no man and only one woman, my dear wife, Betty, as I begin this very difficult job."

Public image, influence, and candor

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." Ford ultimately became a popular and impactful first lady. 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." She was regarded to be the most politically outspoken first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. Ford regarded Roosevelt as a role model. Active in social policy, Ford broke new ground as a politically active presidential spouse.

Repeatedly speaking out on women's issues, Ford was a leader in the changing status of women in American society. Ford surprised the media and the public by explicitly supporting a woman's right to an abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and grassroots activism. Ford took these stances despite recognizing that they created a political risk of conservative backlash against her husband. However, not everything Ford did as First Lady broke tradition. Ford also enjoyed the traditional role as hostess of the White House and spent most of her energy on the family, health, and serving as a surrogate for her husband on the political campaign trail.

Steinhauer of The New York Times described Ford 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." Ford was open about the benefits of psychiatric treatment and spoke understandingly about marijuana use and premarital sex. The New York News Service wrote that Ford was, "constitutionally incapable of uttering 'no comment' or otherwise fudging an answer." As First Lady, remarking on her honest candor and the sometimes-controversial remarks it resulted in, Ford declared, "I am not very good at making up stories." In another instance, she commented, "It's just impossible for me to lie, and look someone in the eyes and talk to them. This is my problem." While President Ford never attempted to silence his wife, some of his senior staff resented her independent candor. Margaret Brown Klapthor later wrote of Ford's candor, "She has the self-confidence to express herself with humor and forthrightness whether she speaks to friends, to the press or to a multitude."

Ford filmed an interview with the television news program 60 Minutes which was broadcast on August 10, 1975. The broadcast of the interview saw strong interest from the public. After the interview aired, several of Ford's remarks in this interview on hot-button issues generated particularly immense media attention. Due to conservative backlash from Ford's comments on premarital sex, marijuana use, and abortion in the 60 Minutes interview, President Ford initially quipped to her that her comments had lost him a large number of votes. However, polling would show that her comments were accepted by many Americans.

In 1975, when Time named the "American Women" as its "Person of the Year", the magazine profiled Ford as one of eleven women selected to represent "American women". That same year, People named Ford one of the three most intriguing people in America. In 1977, the World Almanac included Ford in its ranking of the 25 most influential American women. In January 1976, Ford made a cameo appearance on the popular television program The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The Fords were among the more openly affectionate first couples in United States history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal respect, and they were known to have a strong personal and political partnership. This open affection was evident from the beginning of Gerald Ford's presidency. Ford was observed audibly telling her husband "I love you" following a kiss they shared right after he was sworn in as president. Later that day, President Ford was caught momentarily patting Betty's buttocks before the press gathered outside of their Virginia residence. Weeks later, when the Fords moved from their Virginia residence into the White House their king-size bed was photographed being moved into the White House, which prompted Betty to quip that they had been outed for breaking the tradition of first couples keeping separate bedrooms in the White House. Early into her time in the White House, during a televised tour of the White House, Ford once again noted that she and her husband shared the same bed. In a 1975 interview with McCall's, Ford remarked 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."

Popularity

Ford was popular with the American public. Her overall approval rating was, at times, as high as 75%. Ford's popularity often was higher than her husband's. Ford said, during her husband's failed 1976 presidential campaign, "I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers." This reflects a common trend of American first ladies often being more popular than the presidents to whom they are married.

Ford ranked as one of the top-10 most admired women in the results of Gallup's annual most admired man and woman poll every year from 1974 (the year her husband first became president) through 1991, with the exception of Gallup having failed to conduct such a poll in 1976 (the final full year of her husband's presidency). The poll gauges Americans' most admired men and women without providing respondents any pre-arranged list of names. In 1974, Ford placed second in the poll. She placed first in 1975. In 1977, the year her husband left office, she placed fourth. After her tenure as First Lady ended, she would top the poll for a second time in 1978, the year she had established herself as an advocate for people with drug and alcohol dependence. Contrarily, while President Ford ranked in the top 10 positions of most admired men in multiple years, he never managed to top it.

In Good Housekeeping's annual readers' poll of most admired women, Ford placed second in 1974 and first in 1975. By late 1975, Harris found Ford to have established herself as one of America's most popular First Ladies. In January 1976, the editors of the New York News Service wrote that Ford was, "one of the most charming and popular First Ladies ever to occupy the White House".

During her time as First Lady, Ford was an outspoken advocate of women's rights and was a prominent force in the Women's Movement of the 1970s. 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. On September 4, 1974, weeks after becoming first lady, Ford conducted a press conference in the State Dining Room of the White House in which she remarked that she, "would like to be remembered in a very kind way; also as a constructive wife of a president."

Ford avidly supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. In her September 4, 1974 press conference, Ford declared her support for it. Ford lobbied state legislatures to ratify the amendment and took on opponents of the amendment. Ford utilized phone calls, letter-writing, and telegrams as means of lobbying in support of the ERA.

Ford was also unapologetically pro-abortion rights. In a 1975 interview with the news program 60 Minutes, Ford called Roe v. Wade a "great, great decision". Ford's abortion position differed from the political platform of the Republican Party. For a long time, it was unclear whether Gerald Ford shared his wife's pro-abortion rights viewpoint. In December 1999, he told interviewer Larry King that he, too, was pro-abortion rights and had been criticized for that stance by conservative forces within the Republican Party.

Ford successfully lobbied her husband to, i975, sign an executive order to establish the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. Ford also, unsuccessfully, lobbied her husband to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court of the United States or as a running mate in the 1976 election. Ford took personal credit for the appointment of Carla Anderson Hills as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

In May 1975, during a four-day trip, Ford met with former Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ to discuss Southeast Asia refugees. Afterward, Ford stated she was impressed with the conduct of the refugees.

Ford's involvement in political issues received some conservative criticism. Phyllis Schlafly accused Ford of acting improperly by intervening in state affairs. Some women protested Ford's lobbying for the ERA by carrying placards outside of the White House reading "Betty Ford, Get off the Phone". On June 30, 1976, Ford attended the opening of "Remember the Ladies", a Revolutionary War-era women's exhibit. She drew boos from demonstrators against the Equal Rights Amendment in stating, "This exhibit about neglected Americans should give us strength and courage to seek equal rights for women today."