Betty Ford, the wife of the late President Gerald Ford, who overcame alcohol and prescription drug addictions and helped found a rehabilitation clinic that bears her name, died on Friday at the age of 93.
"I am very shocked when i heared She was died"
Ford once was dubbed the "fighting first lady" by Time magazine because of her outspoken political views, which often differed from those of her husband's Republican Party.
She strongly supported women's rights while her husband was president from 1974 to 1977, working the phones in a vain attempt to get states to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
Ford also was an early campaigner against breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy in 1974, less than two months after her husband succeeded the disgraced Richard Nixon as president.
Her frank discussions about her disease helped raise awareness about breast cancer and she eventually took the same approach toward her alcoholism.
She's problems with chemical dependency may have begun in 1964, when doctors prescribed her painkillers for a pinched nerve. She developed an addiction to prescription drugs and also became dependent on alcohol during the 1960s.
The Betty Ford Center in California came into being in 1982 after Ford was treated for her addictions at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Long Beach, and saw the need for treatment that emphasized the special needs of women.
"She has been an inspiration to so many through her efforts to educate women about breast cancer and her wonderful work at the Betty Ford Center," Nancy Reagan, the wife of the late President Ronald Reagan, said in the statement.
President Barack Obama praised Ford's courage and compassion.
"As our nation's first lady, she was a powerful advocate for women's health and women's rights," he said in a statement. "After leaving the White House, Mrs. Ford helped reduce the social stigma surrounding addiction and inspired thousands to seek much-needed treatment."
Former President George W. Bush described her as a valued friend who "made countless contributions to our country."
BIOGRAPHY :
Ford (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011, better known as Betty Ford, was the wife of former United States President Gerald Ford and served as theFirst Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977. As First Lady, Ford was active in social policy and shattered precedents as a politically active presidential wife.
SHE'S CAREER:
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer was born in Chicago, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co., who died the day before his 60th birthday, 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, she grew up in Grand Rapids,Michigan, where she graduated from Central High school.
After the 1929 stock market crash, when Ford was 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children dances such as the foxtrol,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 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family's garage while working under their car, despite the garage doors being open.
In 1936, after she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in New York City, but her mother refused.Instead, she attended the Bennington School of Dance in bennington,Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under martha Graharm and Haya Holm. After being accepted by Graham as a student, Ford moved to Manhattan's Chelsa 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.
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 at the end of the six months, her mother would not protest further. Betty 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 Goodwin, and Betty lived with them. She got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for a local department store called Herpolsheimer's, as well as organizing her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids.
FAMILY:
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer was born in Chicago, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co., who died the day before his 60th birthday, 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 , she grew up in Grand Rapids,Michigan, where she graduated from Central high School.
When Ford 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.
First Lady of the United States:
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 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 magazine, 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 that she and the President shared the same bed during a televised White House tour. 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.POLITICAL ACTIVISM:
During her time as First Lady, Ford was also an outspoken advocate of woman's rights and was a prominent force in the Women's Movement of the 1970s. She supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment 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 magazine to call her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and name her a Women of the Year, 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, 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.
Health and breast cancer awareness:
Weeks after Ford became First Lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer on
September 28, 1974. 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 magazine. "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.
Post-White House career:
In the years after leaving the White House 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.
WHITE HOUSE LATER LIFE:
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, Betty Ford received the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award in Los Angeles for her public service from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution. She resided in Rancho Mirage and in Beaver Creek,Colorado, with her husband during these years.
Gerald Ford died at their Rancho Mirage home of heart failure on December 26, 2006, aged 93. 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 the age of 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 the funeral of former first lady Lady Bird Johnson in July 2007. Ford's daughter Susan attended instead, representing 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. 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.
We pray for her.
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