Betty Ford

In 1942, Elizabeth Bloomer married William G. Warren,[5][4] whom she had known since she was 12.[5] 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.[11] 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.[5] 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[3] She worked jobs in order 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.[5] After he recovered, they were divorced on September 22, 1947.[3][5]

Betty and Gerald Ford on their wedding day, 1948

Betty and Gerald Ford join Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife Mamie Eisenhower at a Grand Rapids, Michigan event for Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign

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.[3][5][12] 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."[3][13] 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.[14] The Fords would ultimately be married for the next 58 years, until Gerald Ford's death.[15] 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."[7]

The Fords with their children in 1959

Ford (third from left) and her family in the Oval Office of the White House in 1974

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).[16]

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.[3][14][17] 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.[3] As a mother, Ford never spanked or hit her children, believing that there were better, more constructive ways to deal with discipline and punishment.[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 regularly drove her children around to their activities, such as her sons' 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 to newspaper and magazine articles.[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] Ford also volunteered for local charitable organizations, including serving as the program director of the Alexandria Cancer Fund Drive.[3] Ford also held active membership in groups such as the 81st Congress Club and National Federation of Republican Women.[3]

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 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).[3][19] 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 approximately between August 1965 and April 1967.[3] Ford received support from her family and managed to resume a busy lifestyle.[3][20] 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.[3]

Ford accompanied her husband on a trip to mainland China in 1972.[21] 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 in. This prospect elated Ford.[20] 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.[3]

Betty and Gerald Ford riding in the presidential limousine in 1974

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."[27] 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."[28] She was regarded to be the most politically outspoken first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.[7][29] Active in social policy, Ford broke new ground as a politically active presidential spouse.[30]

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 grass roots 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 on a daily basis spent most of her energy on the family, health, and filling in for her husband on the hustings.[31]

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."[32] Ford was open about the benefits of psychiatric treatment, and spoke understandingly about marijuana use and premarital sex.[33] The New York News Service wrote that Ford was, "constitutionally incapable of uttering 'no comment' or otherwise fudging an answer.".[34] 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".[7][34] While President Ford never attempted to silence his wife, some of his senior staff resented her independent candor.[3]

Ford sits in the White House Solarium with Morley Safer before filming her August 1975 60 Minutes interview with him

Ford filmed an interview with the television news program 60 Minutes which was broadcast on August 10, 1975.[3] The broadcast of the interview saw strong interest from the public.[3] After the interview aired, a number of Ford's remarks in this interview on hot-button issues generated particularly immense media attention.[7] Due to conservative backlash from Ford's comments on premarital sex, marijuana use, and abortion in a 1975 60 Minutes interview, President Ford initially quipped to her that her comments had lost him a large number of votes.[7][32][35] However, polling would show that her comments were accepted by many Americans.[7][36][35]

In 1975, when Time named the "American women" as its "Person of the Year",[37] 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.[38] In 1977, the World Almanac included Ford in its ranking of the 25 most-influential American women.[36] In January 1976, Ford made a cameo appearance on the popular television program The Mary Tyler Moore Show.[39]

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.[15] 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.[7] Weeks later, when the Fords moved from their Virginia residence into the White House[3] 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.[7] Early into her time in the White House, during a televised tour of the White House she once again noted that she and her husband shared the same bed.[33] 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."[10]

Photograph of Ford dancing on the table of the Cabinet Room

On January 19, 1977, her last full day as first lady, Betty Ford used her training as a Martha Graham dancer to jump up on the Cabinet Room table. White House photographer David Hume Kennerly took a photo of her on the table.[40][41][42] Gerald Ford did not know about or see the photo until 1994.[43] A Ford family friend said that he "about fell off his chair" when he saw the photo for the first time.[44][45] The photo was subsequently published and is regarded as an "iconic" photograph of Ford's time as First Lady.[45]

Ford was popular with the American public. Her overall approval rating was, at times, as high as 75%.[32] Ford's popularity often was higher than her husband's.[19] Ford said, during her husband's failed 1976 presidential campaign, "I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers."[32] This reflects a common trend of American first ladies often being more popular than the presidents to which they are married.[46]

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,[47][48][49] with the exception of Gallup having failed to conduct such a poll in 1976 (the final full year of her husband's presidency).[50] The poll gauges Americans' most admired men and women without providing respondents any pre-arranged list of names.[47] In 1974, Ford placed second in the poll.[51] She placed first in 1975.[50] In 1977, the year her husband left office, she placed fourth.[52] 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.[50][48] Contrarily to her, while President Ford ranked in the top-10 positions of most admired men in multiple years,[53][54][55][56] he never managed to top it.[50]

In Good Housekeeping's annual readers' poll of most admired women, Ford placed second in 1974[57] and first in 1975.[38] By late-1975, Harris found Ford to have established herself as one of America's most popular first ladies.[35][31] 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".[34]

A sign being displayed in Portland, Maine in August 1975 expressing support for Ford's stance on various women's issues

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.[58] 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.[30] On September 4, 1974, weeks after becoming first lady, Ford conducted 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."[19]

A handmade flag given to Betty Ford that demonstrates her support for the Equal Rights Amendment

Ford avidly supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. In her September 4, 1974 press conference, Ford declared her support for it.[19] Ford lobbied state legislatures to ratify the amendment, and took on opponents of the amendment.[58][31] Ford utilized phone calls, letter-writing, and telegrams as means of lobbying in support of the ERA.[31]

Ford was also unapologetically pro-abortion rights.[19][58] In a 1975 interview with the news program 60 Minutes, Ford called Roe v. Wade a "great, great decision".[19] Ford's abortion position differed from the political platform of the Republican Party.[19] 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.[58]

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.[19] Ford also, unsuccessfully, lobbied her husband to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court of the United States[7][31] or as a running mate in the 1976 election.[31]

In May 1975, during a four-day trip,[59] Ford met with former Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ to discuss Southeast Asia refugees. Afterwards, Ford stated she was impressed with the conduct of the refugees.[60]

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".[31] 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."[61]

Betty Ford hosts actress Rosalind Russell at the White House on May 11, 1976. Russell was suffering from breast cancer, and would die 6 months later.

Ford viewing the Queen's Sitting Room during a Tour of the White House, 1977

Weeks after Ford became first lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer on September 28, 1974, after having been diagnosed with the disease.[62] Ford decided to be open about her illness 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."[63] Her openness about her cancer and treatment 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."[64]

Adding to heightened 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 had a mastectomy.[64] 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".[63]

According to Tasha N. Dubriwny, the massive media coverage of Ford's mastectomy was constrained by stereotypical gender roles, particularly the need for breast cancer patients to maintain their femininity. Betty Ford was portrayed as an ideal patient within a success narrative that presented the key sequences of her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in a progressive, linear fashion that inspired optimism. Her coverage minimized the complexity of breast cancer as a disease and ignored the debates surrounding best treatment practices. It amounted to as aestheticization of breast cancer and her coverage became the major discursive model for looking at all breast cancer survivors.[65]

As First Lady, Ford was an advocate of the arts. She successfully lobbied her husband to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to choreographer and dancer Martha Graham in 1976. She received an award from Parsons The New School for Design in recognition of her style.[3]

Betty and Gerald Ford with King Hussein and Queen Alia of Jordan at the first state dinner of Gerald Ford's presidency on August 16, 1974

Betty and Gerald with French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and his wife Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing at a May 17, 1976 state dinner in their honor

The Fords host Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in the President's Dining Room during a 1976 state visit.

Despite the brevity of her husband's presidency (roughly two and a half years), he hosted 33 state dinners, the fifth most state dinners of any United States president.[24] The first of these came only a week into Ford's presidency, hosting King Hussein of Jordan on August 16, 1974.[24][66] Once she became first lady, it fell to Ford to arrange this already-scheduled dinner.[8][67] She found out of this upcoming dinner and her responsibility for planning it through a phone call she received within 24-hours after her husband's swearing-in as president.[68] As previously mentioned, the Fords had hosted a state dinner for King Hussein months earlier, during Gerald Ford's vice presidency, on March 12, 1974, after president Nixon asked then-Vice President Ford to take over for him in hosting a planned dinner for the King.[24][25] At the first state dinner that she arranged as first lady, Ford revived dancing as an activity of White House state dinners. The Nixons had previously removed dancing from the state dinners during Nixon's presidency.[66] At the state dinners of the Ford presidency, the president and first lady always led off the dancing, and dancing often lasted beyond midnight.[66]

The Fords opted to have eclectic array of guests at their state dinners, including notable celebrities from the entertainment industry. The Fords' children often also attended the dinners they hosted.[66]

During their final year in the White House, the Fords hosted eleven state dinners. This large number of state dinners was, in part, due to great interest from foreign dignitaries in visiting the United States for a state dinner amid the United States bicentennial celebrations. Ford made the decision that year to erect a tent in the White House Rose Garden to host dinners outside. For state dinners held using this tent, the receptions, entertainment, and dancing portions of the evenings were still held inside of the White House.[66]

Of the state dinners she planned, Ford said, "From the beginning, Jerry and I tried to make the White House a place where people could have fun and enjoy themselves. Most of all we wanted the state dinners to express the very best about America, particularly during the bicentennial year."[66]

Dishes that Ford particularly liked serving at state dinners included wild rice,[24][69] Columbia River salmon, soufflé, and flambé. The state dinners that Ford planned as first lady made a deliberate effort to showcase American ingredients.[24] By late 1974, Ford had shifted to exclusively serving wine that was American-cultivated at state dinners. 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. It was not until 2016 that a Michigan wine would again be served at a White House state dinner.[24]

Ford joining dance students at the May 7th College of Art in Beijing, China (December 3, 1975)

Ford accompanied her husband abroad on several diplomatic trips. Among the nations that Ford accompanied her husband to were China, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia.[3]

Ford did not take any solo trips aboad as first lady.[3][70] She is the most recent first lady not to have done so. Ford's failure to conduct a solo trip is not all that extraordinary, however. The first instance of a first lady conducting one had been Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942. Ford's recent predecessor Lady Bird Johnson was among other first ladies that did not conduct solo trips abroad.[70]

During the Fords' 1976 trip to mainland China, when being shown an exhibition by a Chinese arts college dance group, Ford decided to join the dancers. Photos of this moment were published widely in the American press, resulting in Betty Ford somewhat upstaging President Ford in the press.[7]

Ford supported numerous charities as first lady. Ford assisted in fundraising for the little-known Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, D.C., whose patients were predominantly African American. She also fundraised for No Greater Love, in appreciation of its work benefiting Children of Vietnam War MIA and POWs. She served as the honorary president of the National Lupus Foundation, regarding lupus as a disease which impacted women, yet received minimal public attention. Her philanthropic support additionally placed a specific focus on charities serving children with special needs.[3]

In November 1975, it was reported by the Associated Press that Ford's husband's advisors, who had previously worried her outspoken comments would hurt him in the 1976 presidential election, were now recognizing her popularity and desiring for her to have a greater role in the campaign.[35] Ford ultimately played an important role in the 1976 election campaign. Ford made campaign appearances and delivered speeches across the United States.[3]

Ford was also used, both by Ford supporters and detractors, as a symbol of liberal Republicanism, with her politics contrasting with the Republican Party's conservative and moderate wings.[3]

During the campaign, many Ford supporters wore campaign buttons with phrases like "Betty's Husband for President in '76" and "Keep Betty in the White House".[19] The use of Ford in such a manner to promote her husband's candidacy was not the work of the campaign itself, but rather, produced by supporters outside of the campaign organization. The campaigns of the previous three presidents that sought election to an additional term (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon) had needed to manufacture campaign publicity involving their first ladies (Mamie Eisenhower, Lady Bird Johnson, and Pat Nixon). In contrast, there was tremendous organic excitement for Betty Ford among supporters of the campaign.[3]

Ford campaigned actively both during primary elections and the general election. A contrast was publicly drawn between Ford and Nancy Reagan, the wife of Ford's primary election challenger Ronald Reagan. Reagan had contrasting views on issues such as drug experimentation by teenagers and the Equal Rights Amendment (which she opposed passing).[3]

During the primaries, Ford recorded radio advertisements on behalf of the campaign that were broadcast in New Hampshire. She also traveled to Iowa before its caucus, and delivered a speech on behalf of the president (who had been unable to make his planned appearance) in which she labeled herself as being his political partner.[3] The campaign made a deliberate effort, ahead of the 1976 Republican National Convention, of sending Ford to liberal and moderate-leaning states and not more conservative states in the western and southern United States.[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.[3]

The heavy campaigning placed a strain on Ford's health. During the general election, her busy campaign activity saw the reigniting of her pinched nerve. However, even after this, Ford continued with her planned campaign schedule.[3]

After Gerald Ford's defeat by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election she delivered her husband's concession speech because he had lost his voice while campaigning.[3][16] The speech was delivered on the day after the election. This is the only time that a major United States presidential candidate's spouse has delivered their concession on their behalf.[3]

After her husband's narrow defeat, there was some anecdotal speculation that Ford may have both have helped to alienate conservative Republicans from voting for her husband and at the same time helped attract him support from liberal and moderate Republicans, Democrats, and independents.[3]

• 
  Campaign button in support of President Ford's 1976 presidential campaign with the phrase "Keep Betty in the White House"
• 
  Betty and Gerald Ford on stage at the 1976 Republican National Convention
• 
  Ford reads her husband's 1976 presidential concession speech to the press

Ford had suffered from a dependency on prescription medication and from alcoholism prior even to her husband's presidency.[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.[3][19] Ford took doses of this medication in excess of her prescription.[19] In her 1987 memoir she reflected on these addictions, writing, "I liked alcohol, it made me feel warm. And I loved pills. They took away my tension and my pain".[78] The fact that Ford had, for years, been given tranquilizers to treat a pinched nerve in her neck, was public knowledge as far back as her time as second lady.[21] During her time as first lady, there had even been some speculation about substance abuse by friends and members of the press who observed occasional slurred speech from Ford.[79] After they left the White House, her addictions became more evident to her family and appeared life-threatening. On April 1, 1978, her family staged an intervention which forced her to acknowledge the negative impact that her addiction was having on her health and family relationships. She agreed, that day, to detox from her medicine. She also, ultimately agreed to attend rehab at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Long Beach, California. Ford succeeded in getting sober.[3][19] Ford registered herself at the hospital on April 11, 1978.[3]

As she had previously been with her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, Ford was transparent with the public about her addictions and admittance to rehab. Ford's transparency was praised by experts in drug abuse treatment, who predicted that it would make a major and positive impact. The week she entered rehab, Ford disclosed her addiction to prescription medication. Days later, Ford also disclosed to the public that she had come to realize that she was additionally an alcoholic. She disclosed her alcoholism through a statement that a family spokesman read on her behalf at a press conference (at which Ford was not herself present) held outside of the hospital. In this statement, Ford disclosed, "I have found I am not only addicted to the medication I have been taking for my arthritis but also to alcohol". 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. The statement also declared, "I expect this treatment and fellowship to be a solution for my problems. I embrace it, not only for me, but all the many others who are here to participate." The Washington Post reported that Ford's disclosure of alcoholism came as a surprise to a number of Ford's close friends, who had regarded her as merely a social drinker and were oblivious to her drinking problem.[79]

Ford published her first memoir in 1978, The Times of My Life, in which she discussed her battle with addiction.[19]

During a January 1984 address in Michigan to a crowd of individuals who were in the early stages of alcohol and drug dependency treatment, Ford declared that the six years since she began her treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, "have been the best years in my life from the standpoint of feeling healthier and feeling more comfortable with myself".[80]

Photograph of Ford standing outside of the Betty Ford Center

In 1982, after recovering from her own addictions, Ford established the Betty Ford Center (initially called the Betty Ford Clinic) in Rancho Mirage, California, for the treatment of chemical dependency,[81] including treating the children of alcoholics.[82] She served as chair of the board of directors. She also co-authored with Chris Chase a book about her treatment, Betty: A Glad Awakening (1987). 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.[15]

Barbara Bush, a later first lady, opined that Ford, after discovering she was dependent on drugs, "transformed her pain into something great for the common good. Because she suffered, there will be more healing. Because of her grief, there will be more joy."[83]

Ford continued to be an active leader and activist of the feminist movement after the Ford administration. She 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.[84] Ford continued to be an outspoken supporter of equal pay for women, breast cancer awareness, and the ERA throughout her life.[85] She was an active member of the Junior League.[86]

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.[87] In November 1981, Ford stated that Governor of Illinois James R. Thompson had not done enough in support of the ERA as well as her disappointment with First Lady Nancy Reagan not being in favor of the measure, though also relayed her hopes to change the incumbent First Lady's mind in further encounters with her.[88] 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. She visited states, including Illinois, where ratification was believed to have the most realistic chance of passing.[89] The amendment did not receive enough states' ratification. In 2004, Ford reaffirmed her pro-abortion rights stance and her support for the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, as well as her belief in and support for the ratification of the ERA.[90]

Ford tackled the stigmatized issue of HIV/AIDS during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Through the work she did at the Betty Ford Center, Ford recognized the link between drug abuse and AIDS. She involved herself in the Los Angeles AIDS Project. In 1985, Ford received the Los Angeles AIDS Projects "Commitment to Life Award". 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).[79] When she attended the 1992 Republican National Convention, Ford wore an AIDS ribbon pin.[79]

Ford supported gay and lesbian causes, speaking in favor of same-sex marriage and against discrimination in the United States military.[79]

In 1987, Ford underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery and recovered without complications.[91]

On November 18, 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush.[3][92] In 1999, she and President Ford were jointly awarded Congressional Gold Medals.[93] That same year, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her and her husband.[94] 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.[3]

During her and President Ford's later years together, they resided in Rancho Mirage and in Beaver Creek, Colorado.[3] President Ford died, aged 93, of heart failure on December 26, 2006, at their Rancho Mirage home. Despite her advanced age and own frail physical condition, Ford traveled across the country and took part in the funeral events in California; Washington, D.C.; and Michigan.[3] Following her husband's death, Ford continued to live in Rancho Mirage. 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 Lady Bird Johnson's funeral in July 2007; her daughter Susan Ford Bales represented her mother at the funeral service.[3]

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  Betty Ford is awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President George H. W. Bush, 1991. First Lady Barbara Bush holds the medal.
• 
  Betty Ford with her husband and President George W. Bush on April 23, 2006
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  Ford leans over President Ford's coffin during memorial services for him held December 30, 2006 in the United States Capitol rotunda as part of the his state funeral