'''

name	Eleanor Rosalynn Carter
birth date	August 18, 1927
birth place	Plains, Georgia, U.S.
occupation	'''
order	First Lady of the United States
term start	January 20, 1977
term end	January 20, 1981
predecessor	Betty Ford
successor	Nancy Reagan
order2	First Lady of Georgia
term start2	January 12, 1971
term end2	January 14, 1975
predecessor2	Hattie Virginia Cox
successor2	Mary Elizabeth Talbot Busbee
party	Democratic
religion	Baptist
spouse	Jimmy Carter (1946–present)
children	John William, James Earl, Donnel Jeffery, and Amy
relations	Edgar Smith and Frances Allethea Murray, parents
signature	Rosalynn Carter Signature.svg }}

Eleanor Rosalynn Carter (born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith; August 18, 1927) is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental health research. She was politically active in her White House years as her husband's closest adviser and sat in on Cabinet and policy meetings. She also served as an envoy abroad, most notably to Latin America.

Early life[link]

Carter was born in Plains, Georgia, the eldest of the four children of Allie M. Smith (1905–2000), a dressmaker, and Wilburn Edgar Smith (1896–1940), an automobile mechanic and farmer. Her brothers were William Jerrold "Jerry" Smith (engineer, 1929–2003) and Murray Lee Smith (teacher and minister, 1932–2003) and her sister is Lillian Allethea Smith Wall (born 1936).

Her father died of leukemia when she was 13 and she helped her mother to raise her younger siblings, as well as to assist in the dressmaking business in order to meet the family's financial obligations. Carter graduated as valedictorian of Plains High School and then attended Georgia Southwestern College.

Marriage and family[link]

Although their families were acquainted, Rosalynn Carter first dated Jimmy in 1945 while he was serving at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. On July 7, 1946, they married in Plains.

The couple had four children: John William "Jack" (born 1947), James Earl "Chip" III (born 1950), Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" (born 1952), and Amy Lynn (born 1967). The first three were born in different parts of the country and away from Georgia, due to her husband's military duties.

In 1953, after her husband left the Navy, Carter helped him to run the family peanut farm and warehouse business, handling accounting responsibilities. Since 1962, the year her husband Jimmy was elected to the Georgia State Senate, she has been active in the political arena.

First Lady of Georgia[link]

After helping her husband to win the governorship of Georgia in 1970, Carter decided to focus her attention on the field of mental health as First Lady of Georgia. She was appointed to the Governor's Commission to Improve Services for the Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped. Many of the commission's recommendations were approved and became law. She also served as a volunteer at the Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and for four years was honorary chairperson for the Georgia Special Olympics.

Campaigning[link]

In January 1975, when the gubernatorial term ended, Rosalynn, Jimmy and Amy Carter returned to Plains. Jimmy had already announced plans to run for President of the United States. Rosalynn returned to the campaign trail, this time on a national quest to gather support for her husband. She campaigned alone on his behalf in 41 states.

During the months that she was campaigning across the country, Carter was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Mental Health, she was honored by the National Organization for Women with an Award of Merit for her vigorous support for the Equal Rights Amendment, and she received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Southwestern Association of Volunteer Services.

First Lady of the United States[link]

In January 1977, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter walked hand-in-hand down Pennsylvania Avenue during his presidential inauguration parade. For the inaugural balls, she wore the same gown she had worn six years earlier at the balls in Atlanta when her husband became governor.

During her husband's administration, Carter supported her husband's public policies, as well as his social and personal life. In order to remain fully informed, she sat in on Cabinet meetings at the invitation of the President. She represented him in meetings with domestic and foreign leaders, most notably as an envoy to Latin America in 1977. Carter also led a delegation to Thailand in 1979 to address the problems of Cambodian and Laotian refugees. Helping the refugees, particularly the children, became a special cause for her. When the cultural exchange program Friendship Force International launched at the White House on March 1, 1977, she became honorary chairperson, a position she held until 2002.

Carter served as an active honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health. On behalf of the Mental Health System Bill, enacted in 1980, she testified before a Senate committee, the second First Lady to appear before the Congress (the first being Eleanor Roosevelt). In addition, Carter was a strong proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment.

She oversaw her family at the White House. Her daughter, Amy, attracted much public attention. The two youngest sons, Chip and Jeff, and their families also lived in the White House. Other members of the family, including son Jack and his wife and children, were frequent visitors.

Rosalynn Carter's Secret Service codename is "Dancer".

The Carter Center[link]

After leaving the White House in 1981, Carter, like her husband, continued to lead a very active life. In 1982, she co-founded The Carter Center, a private, not-for-profit institution based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a member of the center's Board of Trustees and participates in many of the center's programs. but gives special attention to the Mental Health Program.

Mental health advocacy[link]

She created and serves as the chair of The Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, an advisory board of experts, consumers, and advocates promoting positive change in the mental health field. She hosts the annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, bringing together nationwide leaders in the mental health field.

In April 1984, Carter became an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and serves as a board member emeritus of the National Mental Health Association.

The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism provide stipends to journalists to report on topics related to mental health or mental illnesses. The one-year fellowship seeks to promote public awareness of mental health issues, as well as to erase the stigma associated with them.

In 2007, Carter joined with David Wellstone, son of the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, to push Congress to pass legislation regarding mental health insurance. Wellstone and Carter are working to pass the "Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act" which would require equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses when policies include both types of coverage; both testified before a House subcommittee regarding the bill in July 2007.

Legislation requiring parity in health insurance coverage for treatment of mental illnesses was ultimately passed and signed into law in October 2008.

Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving[link]

Carter is president of the board of directors for the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving (RCI) at Georgia Southwestern State University, her alma mater in Americus, Georgia. The RCI, which was established in 1987, aims to address issues related to caregiving in America and internationally. The institute focuses its work on both family and professional caregivers for individuals living with chronic illness and disabilities, limitations related to aging, and other health concerns across the lifespan. It plays a major role in moving science into practice for caregivers by supporting the implementation of evidence-based programs and interventions for caregivers in community settings.

Advocacy for women and children and current activities[link]

In 1988, Carter convened with three other former first ladies—Betty Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, and Pat Nixon—at the "Women and the Constitution" conference at The Carter Center to assess that document's impact on women. The conference featured over 150 speakers and 1,500 attendees from all 50 states and 10 foreign countries.

She served on the Policy Advisory Board of The Atlanta Project (TAP) of The Carter Center, addressing social ills associated with poverty and quality of life citywide.

In 1991, she launched Every Child By Two, a nationwide campaign that sought to increase early childhood immunizations along with Betty Bumpers, wife of former U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas. Carter serves as President of the organization and Bumpers as Vice President.

She also serves on the board of advisors for Habitat for Humanity and as an honorary chair of Project Interconnections, both of which aim to provide housing for those in need. Additionally, she is a deacon at her and her husband's Plains Baptist church.

Books[link]

Carter has written five books:

''First Lady from Plains'' (autobiography), 1984, ISBN 1-55728-355-9

''Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life'' (with Jimmy Carter), 1987, ISBN 1-55728-388-5

''Helping Yourself Help Others: A Book for Caregivers'' (with Susan K. Golant), 1994, ISBN 0-8129-2591-2

''Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers'' (with Susan K. Golant), 1998, ISBN 0-8129-2898-9

''Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis'' (with Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade), 2010, ISBN 978-1-59486-881-8

Awards and honors[link]

On October 5, 2002, Carter was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. She became only the third First Lady ever inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Abigail Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt.

In 1999, she and her husband received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Among her many other awards for service are:

Dorothea Dix Award, Mental Illness Foundation, 1988

Georgia Woman of the Year Award, 1996

Jefferson Award, American Institute for Public Service, 1996

United Nations Children's Fund International Child Survival Award, 1999

Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health, Institute of Medicine, 2000

United States Surgeon General's Medallion, 2000

American Peace Award along with Jimmy Carter, 2009

She has received honorary degrees from the following institutions:

H.H.D., Tift College, 1979

L.H.D., Morehouse College, 1980

D.P.S., Wesleyan College, 1986

LL.D., University of Notre Dame, 1987

D.Litt., Emory University, 1991

L.H.D., Georgia Southwestern State University, 2001

LL.D., Regis College, 2002

She served as distinguished centennial lecturer at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, from 1988 to 1992. She has been a Distinguished Fellow at the Emory University Department of Women's Studies in Atlanta since 1990.

References[link]

''Portions of this article are based on public domain text from ibiblio.''

External links[link]

The Carter Center

National First Ladies Library

New Georgia Encyclopedia

Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving

Category:American feminists Category:First Ladies of the United States Category:First Ladies and Gentlemen of Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Jimmy Carter Category:Georgia_(U.S._state)_Democrats Category:Georgia Southwestern State University alumni Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Baptists from the United States Category:People from Sumter County, Georgia Category:Writers from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:1927 births Category:Living people Category:Mental health activists

ar:روزالين سميث كارتر az:Rozalin Karter be:Разалін Картэр be-x-old:Разалін Картэр bg:Розалин Картър bn:রোজালিন কার্টার ca:Rosalynn Carter cs:Rosalynn Carterová da:Rosalynn Carter de:Rosalynn Carter es:Rosalynn Carter fa:روزالین کارتر fr:Rosalynn Carter hr:Rosalynn Carter id:Rosalynn Carter it:Rosalynn Carter he:רוזלין קרטר la:Rosalynn Carter nl:Rosalynn Carter ja:ロザリン・カーター no:Rosalynn Carter pl:Rosalynn Carter pt:Rosalynn Carter ru:Картер, Розалин simple:Rosalynn Carter fi:Rosalynn Carter sv:Rosalynn Carter th:โรซาลีนน์ คาร์เตอร์ vi:Rosalynn Carter zh:罗莎琳·卡特

name	Betty Ford
birth name	Elizabeth Ann Bloomer
birth date	April 08, 1918
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
death date	July 08, 2011
death place	Rancho Mirage, California, United States
Restingplace	Gerald R. Ford Presidential MuseumGrand Rapids, Michigan, United States
occupation	First Lady of the United StatesActivist
office1	First Lady of the United States
term start1	August 9, 1974
term end1	January 20, 1977
predecessor1	Pat Nixon
successor1	Rosalynn Carter
office2	Second Lady of the United States
term start2	December 6, 1973
term end2	August 9, 1974
predecessor2	Judy Agnew
successor2	Happy Rockefeller
office3	1st Chair of the Board,Betty Ford Center
term start3	1982
term end3	2005
successor3	Susan Ford Bales
religion	Episcopalian
spouse	William G. Warren(m. 1942–1947, divorced)Gerald Ford(m. 1948–2006, his death)
children	Michael Gerald Ford (born 1950)John "Jack" Gardner Ford (born 1952)Steven Meigs Ford (born 1956)Susan Elizabeth Ford (born 1957)
relations	Parents:William Stephenson Bloomer Sr. (1874–1934)Hortense (''née'' Neahr) Bloomer (1884–1948)
signature	Betty Ford Signature.svg }}

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011), better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford. As First Lady, she was active in social policy and created precedents as a politically active presidential wife.

Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings despite opposition from some conservative Republicans who objected to her more moderate and liberal positions on social issues. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy and was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). 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, the 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 chair of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction and is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal (co-presentation with her husband, Gerald R. Ford, October 21, 1998) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (alone, presented 1991, by George H. W. Bush).

Early life and career[link]

She was born Elizabeth Ann Bloomer in Chicago, Illinois, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co., 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, Colorado, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated from Central High School.

After the 1929 stock market crash, when Ford was age 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children dances such as the foxtrot, 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 age 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.

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 director Martha Hill with choreographers Martha Graham and Hanya Holm. After being accepted by Graham as a student, Ford moved to New York City to live in its Manhattan borough'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 in New York City.

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 City at the end of the six months, her mother would not protest further. Ford became immersed in her life in Grand Rapids and did not return to New York City. Her mother remarried to family friend and neighbor, Arthur Meigs Goodwin, and Ford lived with them. She got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimer's, a local department store, as well as organizing her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids.

Marriages and family[link]

In 1942, she married William C. Warren, who worked for his father in insurance sales, and whom she had known since she was 12. Warren began selling insurance for another company shortly after, later he worked for Continental Can Co., and after that Widdicomb Furniture, 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. She worked a production line for a frozen-food company in Fulton, New York, and once back in Grand Rapids returned to work at Herpolsheimer's, this time as "''The''" Fashion Coordinator. Warren was an alcoholic and in poor health. Just after Betty decided to file for divorce, he went into a coma. She took care of him for another two years as he convalesced, at his family's home. She stayed upstairs while he was nursed downstairs. Then when he recovered, they were finally divorced on September 22, 1947, on the grounds of "excessive, repeated cruelty". They had no children.

On October 15, 1948, she married Gerald Ford, a lawyer and World War II veteran, at Grace Episcopal Church, in Grand Rapids. Gerald Ford was then campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen 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."

Married for fifty-eight years until his death, the couple had three sons: Michael Gerald Ford (born 1950), John Gardner Ford (nicknamed Jack; born 1952), Steven Meigs Ford (born 1956), and a daughter, Susan Elizabeth Ford (born 1957). She never spanked or hit her children, believing that there were better, more constructive ways to deal with discipline and punishment.

The Fords moved to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and lived there for twenty-five years. Gerald Ford rose to become the highest-ranking Republican in the House, then was appointed Vice President to Richard Nixon when Spiro Agnew resigned from that position in 1973. He became president in 1974, upon Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

They were among the more openly affectionate First Couples in American history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal respect, and they were known to have a strong personal and political partnership.

First Lady of the United States[link]

National power, influence, and candor[link]

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 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." In 1975, in an interview with ''McCall's'', 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 during a televised White House tour that she and the President shared the same bed. 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."

Social policy and political activism[link]

left|thumb|Betty Ford's official White House portrait, painted in 1977 by Felix de CossioDuring her time as First Lady, Ford was also an outspoken advocate of women's rights and was a prominent force in the Women's Movement of the 1970s. She supported the proposed ERA 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'' to call her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and name her a Woman of the Year in 1975, 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, in December 1999, 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[link]

Weeks after Ford became First Lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer on September 28, 1974, after being diagnosed with the disease. Ford decided to be open about her cancer because "There had been so much cover-up during Watergate that we wanted to be sure there would be no cover-up in the Ford administration" 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''. "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. 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".

The arts[link]

Ford was an advocate of the arts while First Lady and was instrumental in Martha Graham receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976. She received an award from Parsons The New School for Design in recognition of her style.

Conceding the 1976 election[link]

After Gerald Ford's defeat by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 Presidential election she delivered her husband's concession speech because he lost his voice while campaigning.

Post-White House career[link]

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.

The Betty Ford Center[link]

In 1978, the Ford family staged an intervention and forced her to confront her alcoholism and an addiction to opioid analgesics that had been prescribed in the early 1960s for a pinched nerve. "I liked alcohol," she wrote in her 1987 memoir. "It made me feel warm. And I loved pills. They took away my tension and my pain". In 1982, after her recovery, she established the Betty Ford Center (initially called the Betty Ford Clinic) in Rancho Mirage, California, for the treatment of chemical dependency. She co-authored with Chris Chase a 1987 book about her treatment, ''Betty: A Glad Awakening''. In 2003, Ford produced another book, ''Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery''.

In 2005, Ford relinquished her chair of the center's board of directors to her daughter Susan. She had held the top post at the center since its founding. Her husband joked about how she had been chairperson of the board while he had only been a president.

Women's movement[link]

Ford continued to be an active leader and activist of the feminist movement after the Ford administration, and continued to strongly advocate and lobby politicians and state legislatures for passage of the ERA. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ford to the second National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year (the first had been appointed by President Ford). That same year, she joined First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Rosalynn Carter to open and participate in the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas, where she endorsed measures in the convention's National Plan of Action, a report sent to the state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, and the President on how to improve the status of American women. As she was during her years in the White House, Ford continued to be an outspoken supporter of equal pay, breast cancer awareness, and the ERA throughout her life.

In 1978, the deadline for ratification of the ERA was extended from 1979 to 1982, resulting largely from a march of a hundred thousand people on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The march was led by prominent feminist leaders, including Ford, Bella Abzug, Elizabeth Chittick, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. In 1981, Eleanor Smeal, the National Organization for Women's president, announced Ford's appointment to be the co-chair, with Alan Alda, of the ERA Countdown Campaign. As the deadline approached, Ford led marches, parades and rallies for the ERA with other feminists including First Daughter Maureen Reagan and various Hollywood actors. Ford was credited with rejuvenating the ERA movement and inspiring more women to continue working for the ERA and visited states, including Illinois, where ratification was believed to have the most realistic chance of passing. In 2004, she reaffirmed her pro-choice stance and her support for the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in ''Roe v. Wade'' and reaffirmed her belief in and support for the ratification of the ERA.

Later life[link]

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. A Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her and her husband in 1999.

On May 8, 2003, Ford received the Woodrow Wilson Award in Los Angeles for her public service from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution.

During these years, she and her husband resided in Rancho Mirage and in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Gerald Ford died, age 93, at their Rancho Mirage home of heart failure on December 26, 2006. 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. She was 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 Johnson's funeral in July 2007; Ford's daughter Susan represented 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. Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson lived into their nineties but their husbands Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson did not. Herbert Hoover and John Adams both lived into their nineties but their wives Lou Henry Hoover and Abigail Adams did not. 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.

Death and funeral[link]

Betty Ford died of natural causes on July 8, 2011, at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, aged 93.

Funeral services were held in Palm Desert, California, on July 12, 2011, with over 800 people in attendance, including former president George W. Bush, First Lady Michelle Obama and former first ladies Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Rosalynn Carter, Cokie Roberts and Geoffrey Mason, a member of the Board of the Betty Ford Center delivered eulogies.

On July 13, her casket was flown to Grand Rapids where it lay in repose at the Gerald Ford Museum overnight.

On July 14, a second service was held at Grace Episcopal Church with eulogies given by Lynne Cheney, former Ford Museum director Richard Norton Smith and son, Steven. In attendance were former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former first lady Barbara Bush. In her remarks, Mrs. Cheney noted that July 14 would have been Gerald Ford's 98th birthday. After the service, she was buried next to her husband on the museum grounds.

Former President Clinton had been scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., meet his wife, and travel to the service in Palm Springs. However, a mechanical problem caused his plane to be delayed and, after discussing the situation, they agreed that she would leave without him in order to arrive on time.

Bibliography[link]

See also[link]

Feminist Movement in the United States (1963–1982)

List of breast cancer patients according to occupation

List of First Ladies of the United States

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Remembering Betty Ford — slideshow by ''Life''

Ford, Betty from ''Encyclopædia Britannica''

Category:1918 births Category:2011 deaths Category:20th-century women writers Category:21st-century women writers Category:Activists from California Category:American dancers Category:American Episcopalians Category:American female models Category:American memoirists Category:American women's rights activists Category:American women writers Category:Breast cancer survivors Category:Burials in Michigan Category:California Republicans Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Death in California Category:First Ladies of the United States Category:Gerald Ford family Category:Michigan Republicans Category:People from Grand Rapids, Michigan Category:People from Manhattan Category:People from Riverside County, California Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Second Ladies of the United States Category:Spouses of members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Chicago, Illinois Category:Writers from Michigan Category:Writers from Virginia

af:Betty Ford az:Betti Ford bn:বেটি ফোর্ড be:Беці Форд be-x-old:Бэці Форд bg:Бети Форд ca:Betty Ford cs:Betty Fordová cy:Betty Ford da:Betty Ford de:Betty Ford es:Betty Ford fa:بتی فورد fo:Betty Ford fr:Betty Ford ko:베티 포드 hr:Betty Ford id:Betty Ford it:Betty Ford he:בטי פורד la:Elisabetha Ford nl:Betty Ford ja:ベティ・フォード no:Betty Ford pl:Betty Ford pt:Betty Ford ru:Форд, Бетти simple:Betty Ford sl:Betty Ford fi:Betty Ford sv:Betty Ford th:เบ็ตตี ฟอร์ด zh:贝蒂·福特