From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
Betty Ford |
|
|
In office
1982 – 2005 |
| Succeeded by |
Susan Ford Bales |
|
In office
August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977 |
| Preceded by |
Patricia Ryan Nixon |
| Succeeded by |
Rosalynn Carter |
|
In office
December 6, 1973 – August 9, 1974 |
| Preceded by |
Judy Agnew |
| Succeeded by |
Happy Rockefeller |
|
| Born |
April 8, 1918 (age 91)
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Spouse(s) |
William G. Warren
(divorced; 1942-1947)
Gerald Ford
(widowed; 1948-2006) |
| Children |
Michael, Jack, Steven, Susan |
| Occupation |
First Lady of the United States
Activist
Feminist
Businesswoman
Dancer
Fashion model |
| Religion |
Episcopalian |
| Signature |
 |
Elizabeth Anne "Betty" Bloomer Ford (born
April 8, 1918) is the widow of former United
States President Gerald
R. Ford and served as theFirst
Lady of the United States from
1974 to 1977. As first lady, Betty Ford was active in social policy and
shattered precedents as a politically active presidential wife (Time considered
her "the most since Eleanor
[Roosevelt]"). In the opinion of several historians, Betty had more impact
upon history and culture than her husband.
Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings
despite some opposition from some conservative Republicanswho
objected to her more moderate and liberal positions on social issues. Betty
Ford was noted for raising breast
cancer awareness with her 1974 mastectomy and
was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal
Rights Amendment. 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, 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 chairwoman of the board of directors of, the Betty
Ford Center for substance abuse
and addiction and is a recipient of theCongressional
Gold Medal.
Early
life and career
Born in Chicago as Elizabeth Anne Bloomer, she is the third child and only
daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer Sr., a traveling salesman for Royal
Rubber Co., and his wife, the former Hortense Neahr. She had two older
brothers, Robert and William Jr., and 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 Betty Bloomer was eleven, she began modeling clothes
and teaching other children dances such as the foxtrot, waltz,
and big
apple. She studied dance at
the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in 1935.
When Bloomer was 16, her father died of carbon
monoxide poisoning, reportedly while working on the family car in the
Bloomers' garage; whether it was an accident or suicide remains unknown.[1] In
1933, after she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study
of dance in New
York City, but her mother refused. Instead, Bloomer attended the Bennington
School of Dance in Bennington,
Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under Martha
Graham and Hanya
Holm.
After being accepted by Graham as a student, Betty Bloomer moved to Manhattan’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.
Her mother, now remarried to Arthur Meigs Godwin, opposed her daughter’s
choice of a career and insisted that she move home, but Bloomer resisted. They
finally came to a compromise: she would return home for six months, and if
nothing worked out for her in New York, she would return to Michigan, which
she did in 1941. She became the fashion coordinator
for a local department
store. She also organized her own dance group and taught dance at various
sites in Grand Rapids; those she taught included children with disabilities.
Marriages
and family
In 1942, Bloomer married William C. Warren, a furniture salesman, whom she had
known since she was 12. Warren began selling insurance shortly after 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. They had no
children and divorced on September 22, 1947, on the grounds of
incompatibility.
On October 15, 1948, Elizabeth Bloomer Warren married Gerald R. Ford Jr., a
lawyer and World War II veteran, at Grace Episcopal
Church, inGrand
Rapids, Michigan. Ford was then campaigning for what would be his first of
13 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."[2]
Married for 58 years, the couple had four children: Michael
Gerald Ford (b. 1950), John
Gardner Ford (nicknamed Jack,
b. 1952), Steven
Meigs Ford (b. 1956), and Susan
Elizabeth Ford (b. 1957).
The Fords moved to the Virginia suburbs
of the Washington,
D.C., area and lived there for 25 years. Ford rose to become the highest-rankingRepublican in
the House, then was appointed Vice
President when Spiro
Agnew resigned from that
position in 1973. He became president in 1974, uponRichard
M. Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate
scandal.
Betty and Gerald Ford were among the more openly loving and intimate First
Couples in American history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal
respect for one another, and were known to have a strong partnership, both
personally and politically.[3]
First
Lady of the United States
National
power, influence, and candor
