JANE ALEXANDER: The 1970's, Watergate, Women's
Rights and Vietnam... Tumultuous times catapult Gerald R. Ford and his wife Betty into the
White House. He was plainspoken and she was outspoken.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: It is impossible to overestimate the impact that Betty Ford had on the office
of first lady. She changes everything about the role of first lady.
ANNE CULLEN: There are thousands of women who are alive right now and in recovery that
wouldn't be there if Mrs. Ford hadn't gone public. JANE ALEXANDER: This is her story.
In Betty Ford's brief and unexpected reign as first lady she broke the mold. She was
a Pro-Choice Republican who became the first first lady to take on a feminist agenda and
one of the few to differ publicly with her husband.
BETTY FORD: I really always have been probably what you might say is outspoken -- sometimes
to the detriment of my husband's role as president. JANE ALEXANDER: Her ability to be open and
honest about her battles with breast cancer and drug and alcohol abuse, saved millions.
It was an incredible and sometimes painful journey.
In 1947, troops were flocking back home from the war and in Grand Rapids, Michigan the
young and upwardly mobile gathered at Kent Country Club for Saturday night dances. It
was here that hometown belle Betty Bloomer Warren would first spot the young lawyer Gerald
Ford. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: He was a football hero
who had not only been a hero at the University of Michigan but had been drafted by the pros.
He was a bona fide war hero. He was incredibly handsome. He was the type of guy who would
gravitate to a beautiful woman like Betty Bloomer Warren, and he does.
BETTY FORD: We just thought we would be good friends, companions and so many of our friends
were married that it made it handy to have somebody to do things socially with or go
to a movie with but with time I certainly developed a feeling that this was someone
special in my life. JANE ALEXANDER: It was indeed a special relationship
a partnership that would endure for over half a century propelling Betty Bloomer Warren
onto a world stage that would give her the biggest audience of her life.
She was born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer on April 8th, 1918. Her two brothers Bill and Bob,
who were 5 and 8 years her senior, called her Betty. They grew up in a fashionable section
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a small mid-western city.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: It was the epitome of middle class America.
JANE ALEXANDER: Betty's mother, Hortense Nearh Bloomer, was from a wealthy family. She was
also a perfectionist, whose standards Betty always tried to live up to.
Betty's father, Bill Bloomer worked as a travelling salesman selling conveyor belts.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: It wasn't a privileged upbringing but it was a comfortable upbringing.
Because of her father's success in sales, they were able to avoid being hurt very badly
by the Great Depression. JANE ALEXANDER: But that success meant Betty's
father was rarely home. BETTY FORD: My mother was a very independent
woman because she had to be. She had been very much a role model in my life because
my father was gone a lot JANE ALEXANDER: The influence of two older
brothers and a strong mother fortified Betty Bloomer's already independent nature.
LILLIAN FISHER: She spoke right out. You always knew how you stood and what she wanted. She
wasn't a namby-pamby pretty little dancing doll. She was very much a solid character.
JANE ALEXANDER: A solid character that became comfortable performing at an early age. At
age eight, Betty Bloomer danced with the Calla Travis Dance Troupe in their spring recitals
and continued dancing through high school. BETTY FORD: I became very interested in my
dancing school. And I spent a lot of time with that because I enjoyed it so much. I
kind of fell in love with dance. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: So she gravitated to modern
dance. Which was an outgrowth of the artistic scene of the 1920's, was much more expressive,
was much more free form. It was perfectly suited for Betty's adventurous personality.
JANE ALEXANDER: Before long Betty was the star of many dance recitals in Grand Rapids.
She even modeled to pay for her dance lessons. LILLIAN FISHER: She was very popular with
the boys. There would be several of us who would sort of wait and see who is asking her
for Friday and Saturday night dates and then see who was going to be left over for us.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: She dated a great deal, she smoked early. She says she had her first
drink at age 14. This was a young rebel. JANE ALEXANDER: But Betty's teenage fun and
revelry would come to a halt one day when she came home to discover her father had died.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: He was found in his garage, in the car, with the motor running and he
asphyxiated from carbon monoxide poisoning. BETTY FORD: It came as a shock because he
died quite suddenly. I was 16 years old, which is a very impressionable age, a very important
age. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: What was more important
than how he died was what happened at the funeral when Betty was told for the first
time by her mother that her father was indeed an alcoholic.
JANE ALEXANDER: The revelation of her father's alcoholism would become more significant as
Betty struggled with her own issues later in life. For now, she watched as her mother
carried on with a strength she would try to emulate.
BETTY FORD: She went out and she got her real estate license and sold houses. That gave
me an idea of how independent a woman can be if she needs to be.
JANE ALEXANDER: After high school, Betty went to a summer dance program at Bennington College
in Vermont. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: It was the complete inverse
of Grand Rapids -- very progressive faculty. And Betty found herself and found her artistic
muse in Bennington. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty's muse was modern dance
pioneer Martha Graham who was in residence teaching a summer workshop.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: Martha Graham wanted the performer to be able to lay everything on
the line in public. There is no better definition of what Betty Ford would become than that.
JANE ALEXANDER: After Bennington, Betty followed Martha Graham to New York, but after two years
she was still not in the principle dance troupe. Martha saw that Betty enjoyed her social life
as well as dance. BETTY FORD: Martha was very strict. She expected
you to give it full attention 24 hours a day. So I had a lot of talkings-to by Martha. You
know if you're really serious about this, you better settle down.
JANE ALEXANDER: Betty decided she wasn't ready to fully commit to the life of a dancer, and
gave into her mother's pleas to come home. BETTY FORD: She kept talking about all my
friends at home who were getting married and having these lovely weddings and trying to
tempt me to come back. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty did return and married
a traveling salesman named Bill Warren, whom she divorced within five years. She supported
herself working as a model and fashion coordinator. And she lived in an apartment on her own.
It was at this time that Yale Law School graduate Gerald Ford and Betty Bloomer Warren would
cross paths. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: He was a perfect match
for Betty Bloomer Warren, who had come back a much more cosmopolitan person from Bennington,
and from New York. JANE ALEXANDER: With her sense of humor, beauty
and sophistication she was the tonic that loosened up this conservative young lawyer
and in turn his serious convictions offered her a stability that both her father and first
husband could not. In a matter of months they were talking about marriage.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: Gerald Ford was ready to accept his wife as a professional woman.
He was ready to accept her as an outgoing, outspoken woman.
STEVE FORD: But you know, he kept a secret, he didn't tell her he was running for politics,
he says, you know, I want to marry you. But, I've got a secret. I can't tell you till later.
Betty agreed to marry Ford, and soon after he revealed his secret: he planned to run
for Congress, she wasn't thrilled, but though it was unlikely he would win.
STEVE FORD: He was running for Congress in a very conservative Dutch area, you know.
And the idea of him marrying a divorced woman may not go over that well. I mean, that was
politics back in the 1950s. She swears to this day if she knew he was
running for Congress she would have never ever married a politician.
JANE ALEXANDER: Ford won the primary, guaranteeing him the election in his Republican district.
They were married on October 15, 1948, between the primary and the general election.
Betty would get a glimpse into her future as a political wife, when Ford arrived late
to the wedding with muddy shoes from campaigning at a nearby farm.
Janet Ford, the matron of honor, would remark to the new Mrs. Ford, "You won't have to worry
about other women, Jerry's work will be the other women."
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Their honeymoon consisted of a University of Michigan football game
in Ann Arbor, followed by a decidedly unromantic trip up to Owasso, Michigan on a cold October
night in the outdoors to hear Thomas E. Dewey orate. And this was sort of her formal initiation
into the life of a political wife. JANE ALEXANDER: On January 3 1949 newly elected
Congressman Gerald Ford and his wife Betty arrived in Washington.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: He was this very promising, up and coming athletic, you know, former football
player from a safe seat in Michigan. Who from a very early age in Congress had been noticed
and taken under the wings of the old bulls who ran the place. He was a man who expected
to spend his entire career in the House. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: He was also that very
rare type of politician who was welcomed on either side of the aisle. And he could be
friends, honest friends with Republican and Democrat alike. He was affable. He was likeable.
He was approachable. JANE ALEXANDER: And Betty immersed herself
in the obligations of a political wife. BETTY FORD: It was very exciting for me. I
had never lived in Washington before. JANE ALEXANDER: A year after the Ford's arrived
in Washington, their first son Michael was born.
BETTY FORD: When we brought home that first little boy. I was dumbfounded at the love
and astonishment that my husband had for this little darling creature. He was like melted
butter. JANE ALEXANDER: In rapid succession the Fords
would add Jack, Steve and Susan to the roost and build a modest house in Alexandria, Virginia.
BETTY FORD: I became very much a full time mother. I was very active at the church as
a Sunday school teacher trying to make a good role model for our children.
JANE ALEXANDER: They were a quintessential middle American family one thing set them
apart dad wasn't always home for dinner at five.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: He loved his wife, but he was an ambitious politician. He wanted
to be Speaker of the House. One way to do that was to get IOU's from people who you
helped get elected. As a result, he was on the road sometimes 200 days a year. She was
at home with four children, relatively modest household income. That was a very tough thing
for her to live through. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty found herself once again,
with a husband who was on the road as much as her father had been. There was no doubt
that Ford was a loving attentive father when he was home, but the demands of a political
career took their toll. JACK FORD: Because Dad wasn't necessarily
there all the time, she sort of played that dual role of trying to be the mom but also
trying to play some of the dad role. There was no question the burden was greater on
Mother. JANE ALEXANDER: And to make matters worse,
a simple accident while opening a window would set her off on a downward spiral.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: She was taken to an osteopathic hospital and they diagnosed a pinched nerve.
They dealt with that pinched nerve which was an incredible searing pain with prescription
drugs. Prescription drugs that by her own admission Betty begins to take out of the
prescribed dosage. JACK FORD: The pain would be such that she
was bed ridden, when you're a healthy young kid growing up you understand being hurt but
you don't understand being hurt in a way that doesn't get better. The ability to treat those
kinds of injuries was pretty primitive. Put some hot packs on it. You know take a couple
of pills and that's about all we can do for you.
JANE ALEXANDER: In 1965 Ford became Minority Leader of the House and demands on his time
increased. BETTY FORD: And I would read all these things
about my husband being someplace, great articles, but I realized that I was kind of what I considered
just nobody. I had no self esteem, kind of depression, withdrawal. I really felt that
I was kind of being left behind. JANE ALEXANDER: In her memoirs Betty writes:
"I hated feeling crippled so I took more pills. Now I know that some of the pain I was trying
to wipe out was emotional." One day, Susan came home and found her mother
hysterically crying. SUSAN FORD: It was very scary when she had
a breakdown and I think it was probably the stress of four kids and a husband who wasn't
home and everything else. I know that she was hospitalized.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: What was happening to her actually mirrors what Betty Friedan was
talking about in the Feminine Mystique. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty Ford mirrored the independent
women in Friedan's book. Published in 1963, it showed women marrying and devoting their
lives to their husbands' careers while burying their own to ambitions and losing their identities.
Some, unhappy and depressed, turned to drink. BETTY FORD: One of my doctors suggested I
see a psychiatrist which I did. And we worked through it as far as my role in my life. He
said you need to take one whole day for Betty and do whatever you want. Be out with friends
or whatever appeals to you. JANE ALEXANDER: And Betty returned to what
she loved best -- dance. BETTY FORD: When I started the modern dance
class with these other women that was kind of pressure relief. That was the relief valve.
JANE ALEXANDER: But it was not enough, in her memoirs Betty admits that when Jerry was
away she began a routine of having her, "five o'clock drink at a neighbor's house another
fixing dinner and then a nightcap watching television." Something she never discussed
with her psychiatrist. JANE ALEXANDER: A landslide victory in 1972
put Republican President Richard Nixon back in the White House but Congress would remain
Democratic dashing Ford's dreams of becoming House Speaker. Much to Betty's relief, Gerry
began to discuss leaving politics all together. BETTY FORD: We had plans to retire and we
talked about it and we said well he would serve out that term with President Nixon and
then we would retire. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: I think clearly and some
of the children point this out in later interviews, they saw that their father was now more aware
of how fragile his wife had become. They start talking about retirement and then Spiro Agnew
changes everything. PRESIDENT NIXON: I do solemly swear...
JANE ALEXANDER: The triumph of President Nixon's re-election quickly lost its luster when a
burglary in Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate ballooned into
televised Senate hearings linking the president's staff and possibly the President himself to
the break in. SEN. HOWARD BAKER: What did the President
know and when did he know it. And while America focused on one scandal another
erupted. JANE ALEXANDER: On October 10th 1973, Vice
President Spiro Agnew, who had been under investigation for accepting bribes while Governor
of Maryland, resigned. He was the first Vice President in American history to do so.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Americans saw their Vice President taking cash and envelopes in his
office. They saw their President covering up a burglary and other crimes. These were
things that Americans never could have imagined. They felt they were really in unchartered
territory. STEVE FORD: Dad's name was on the list of
maybe ten people that might be selected by Nixon as the next vice president. I think
we all thought Nixon needed him in Congress to help get legislation passed.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: Nixon, who has got his own Watergate problems at that time goes in
a shrewd move to Capitol Hill. And he says I want someone who is going to guaranteed
to be approved. And in every poll Gerald Ford headed the list.
BETTY FORD: I had been in my slacks, usual getting dinner for the family. My husband
had come home to have dinner and then he was planning to go back to the White House for
that announcement. JANE ALEXANDER: It was an ordinary night until...
STEVE FORD: The phone rang at the house and dad got on the phone. I think General Alexander
Haig was on the other end of that line, letting dad know that President Nixon was calling
to ask him to be vice president. RICHARD NORTON SMITH: And it's only then that
Mrs. Ford learns in effect that her whole life is about to be turned upside down, and
oh by the way in 2 hours you have to be in the east room of the White House to be introduced
to the country. STEVE FORD: I remember my mother saying to
dad. She wasn't crazy about him being Vice President. She'd just got him ready to resign
and dad said, "Betty, don't worry, vice presidents don't do anything."
PRESIDENT NIXON: My fellow Americans, I proudly present to you the man whose name I will submit
to the Congress of the United States for confirmation as Vice President of the United States, Congressman
Gerald Ford of Michigan. BETTY FORD: I was very much in awe of the
situation. This recognition that he was receiving seemed to just also flow out to me. And I
felt, I felt very important. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: Nixon when it's all over
turns to Betty and says congratulations and she looks at him and says, congratulations
or condolences. JANE ALEXANDER: On Dec. 6, 1973, Ford was
sworn in as vice president. Betty is thrust out of the anonymous role
of congressional wife onto the public stage while she admitted she was terrified of television
interviews, nevertheless she always spoke out candidly.
DOUGLAS KIKER: Mrs. Ford, I'll ask you a political question. How do you stand on the Woman's
Liberation Movement? BETTY FORD: I would say I am for Women's Lib
because I feel very strongly that/ a woman should certainly receive equal pay for equal
compensation as any man would. I think I'm a feminist really.
JACK FORD: People may think that Mother became an activist when she got to the White House.
But anybody who knew her over the years will know that she was always one to speak her
mind. She and the rest of the family were very blessed in that Dad was one of those
people who encouraged people to think for themselves and he wasn't threatened by it.
JANE ALEXANDER: And the new second family was a big hit with the media.
DICK CAVETT: Hello I'm Dick Cavett you may wonder what I'm doing here. I'm right in front
of 514 Crown View Drive and the reason for that is the man living here suddenly became
the 40th Vice President of the United States. JANE ALEXANDER: Cavett was invited in to meet
the family. But the introduction to the Ford family was
being drowned out by the drumbeat of Watergate. PROTESTERS: Impeach Nixon now.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: People were distrustful of the political process, cynicism had taken
root, people had been lied to. The country was coming apart at the seams over an unpopular
war in Vietnam and a scandal called Watergate. HOWARD K. SMITH: On Saturday the house judiciary
committee recommended that President Nixon be charged with obstructing justice in the
Watergate case. BETTY FORD: We had literally prayed that this
whole thing would blow over and President Nixon would continue to serve out his term:
It just began to get bigger and bigger. JANE ALEXANDER: The final blow would come
when the Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to turn over white house tape recordings that
linked the president to the cover-up. NEWSCASTER: President Nixon stunned the country
today. NEWSCASTER: The Republican Party today gave
up on Richard Nixon. DAN RATHER: White House aides say privately,
quote, "It is over." JANE ALEXANDER: On August 8th, 1974 a shocked
nation watched President Nixon's final broadcast. PRESIDENT NIXON: I shall resign the Presidency
effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that
hour in this office. JANE ALEXANDER: It was an historical first.
The next day, the Fords accompanied Nixon and his wife Pat, to the helicopter that would
take them back home to San Clemente, California. BETTY FORD: It was in my mind the saddest
day of my life. I can't remember when I felt so totally unable to handle something.
JANE ALEXANDER: Minutes after the Nixons departed, Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as President of
the United States. PRESIDENT GERALD FORD: So help me God...
My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. I have not campaigned either for
the presidency or the vice presidency. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman
-- my dear wife. JANE ALEXANDER: Seldom had the nation seen
a President pay such homage to his wife and partner. But, they both knew the journey ahead
would not be easy. BETTY FORD: I felt that the burden and responsibilities
of assuming the role of first lady would be very confining.
JANE ALEXANDER: Nixon's resignation was so sudden Ford had to commute to the White House
for the first few weeks of his presidency while the Nixon's belongings were being packed
up. STEVE FORD: I'll just never forget my mom
kind of standing over the stove that night and cooking and doing some stuff. And the
thought of, you know, Jerry, something's wrong here. You just became President of the United
States and I'm still cooking, you know I mean, that was our reality. Dad's president and
we're still in Alexandria living in suburbia. JANE ALEXANDER: It was birth by fire for the
first lady. Just days after Ford became president the King and Queen of Jordan arrived for a
long-planned state visit. Betty rose to the occasion. Her reluctance and fear of assuming
her new role seemed to dissolve as she sacheted across the dance floor.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think she really did blossom in the White House. It was the belated
you know kind of coming out that she had been denied all these years. The Martha Graham
dancer got to showcase the arts in the White House. She was a marvelous hostess, who really
threw herself into preparations. JANE ALEXANDER: The White House parties reflected
Betty Ford's personality they were relaxed and fun
It was an altogether hip new White House with a first lady who was talking about women's
rights. BETTY FORD: As my husband occasionally makes
the remark when I discuss equal rights, equal opportunity. We kid about it and I often say
I can remember well there was time when we couldn't even vote.
SUSAN HARTMANN: Betty Ford was the first first lady to really speak consistently publicly
about women's rights and women's issues. She was the most visible Republican feminist.
BETTY FORD: Certainly equal rights and equal pay
JANE ALEXANDER: Both Betty and Jerry were right for their time.
STEVE FORD: They were the perfect couple to be in the White House after Watergate. Because
Watergate, you know, was all about secrets. It was all about enemies lists and this and
that. And again, it goes back to here was Betty and Jerry Ford from the Midwest. Willing
to open up their lives and share who they truly were with-- with everybody.
SHEILA WEIDENFELD: They were very human people who from the time the first photos were taken
of President Ford toasting toasting his English muffins/Americans loved this first family.
JANE ALEXANDER: Initially, they enjoyed a glorious political honeymoon. But that would
soon end a month later. PRESIDENT FORD: I Gerald R. Ford do grant
a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon.
JANE ALEXANDER: Ford claimed the pardon would allow the nation to move beyond the dark cloud
of Watergate. But there were perceptions that Nixon and Ford had made a secret deal about
the pardon that would dog his presidency. But, two weeks after the pardon a more personal
crisis erupted. Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer. Rather than hide the fact,
she went public. BETTY FORD: It was unusual to be public about
it. But because my husband when he was sworn in had made it very clear that there would
be no cover up. Our family all agreed that he should tell them exactly what I was going
for surgery and the outcome of it. JANE ALEXANDER: The day of the first lady's
surgery, the president addressed an economic conference.
PRESIDENT FORD: Just one personal note if I might. I just returned from the hospital
where I saw Betty, as she came from the operating room. Dr. Lukash has assured me that she came
through the operation all right. JANE ALEXANDER: President Ford's open display
of emotion and affection for his wife was something the American public had not witnessed
in past presidents. The photos that emerged became a powerful story.
SUSAN HARTMANN: She was one of the first, most important women to come out publicly
and talk about breast cancer. So she made just an enormous impact in terms of women
paying attention to their bodies and paying attention to the possibility of breast cancer
and catching it very early. JANE ALEXANDER: Thousands of women rushed
out to get mammograms after seeing the first lady's ordeal. At the time, breast cancer
was the leading killer of women aged 40-45 in the U.S., but less than half of those women
were receiving regular exams. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: She realized as a result
of the reaction to her candor that she could now say things and be paid attention to in
a way that she hadn't been as second lady. And she becomes much more candid.
BETTY FORD: I do not believe that being first lady should prevent me from expressing my
ideas. SUSAN FORD: I think the biggest change I saw
in mother, when she became first lady, was more of a fact of she had a podium to stand
on. BETTY FORD: Early detection is the secret.
SUSAN FORD: The voice was always there. The opinion was always there. But it's I guess
she had more of an audience. BETTY FORD: You know, it was great for my
self esteem and I was kind of amazed that I was this important person.
JANE ALEXANDER: And with that new voice, the first lady took the bold step of calling state
legislators to lobby them for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
While the president supported passage of the ERA ,some felt Betty Ford was overstepping
her role as first lady. Her actions kicked up a storm of controversy. Picketers surrounded
the White House and a deluge of angry letters showered the mailroom.
A memo from the West Wing insisted that they be consulted before the first lady engaged
in "activities intended to influence the public on legislation."
SHEILA WEIDENFELD: They regard the best first lady as a first lady who is seen and not heard,
who doesn't make waves, be a viewer and not a doer.
JANE ALEXANDER: But Betty Ford's outspokenness was not something the West Wing could control.
DAVID KENNERLY: Dick Cheney then chief of staff and deputy went to the president and
told the president that being outspoken Betty was getting a little out of hand, and can
you tell her to cool it? And President Ford said look, if you want her to cool it, then
you go tell her, and to my knowledge, they never did.
SHEILA WEIDENFELD: She didn't want to become the podium princess. She wanted to be herself.
She wanted to be able to say what was on her mind.
JANE ALEXANDER: Betty Ford's candor was something Gerald Ford admired from the very first day
they met and he wasn't about to silence his wife now. One year into her new role as first
lady, Betty Ford would tell 60 Minutes Correspondent Morley Safer her views on pre-marital sex
and abortion. MORLEY SAFER: What if Susan Ford came to you
and said, Mother I'm having an affair. BETTY FORD: Well I wouldn't be surprised,
I'd think she was a perfectly normal human being like all young girls if she wanted to
continue, I would certainly counsel and advise her on the subject.
MORLEY SAFER: Among things that you have spoken about is abortion, which is kind of a taboo
subject for the wife a president. BETTY FORD: Well if you ask a question you
have to be honest. I feel very strongly that it was the best thing in the world when the
Supreme Court voted to legalize abortion and in my words, bring it out of the back woods
and put it into the hospital where it belongs. JANE ALEXANDER: Her remarks unleashed a firestorm.
ROGER MUDD: Betty Ford's comments about premarital sex have stirred up reaction from London to
Manila. HARRIET VAN HORNE: I don't think Mrs. Ford
is encouraging immorality, but I certainly think she struck a chord with poor taste.
ROGER MUDD: Well down in Dallas the pastor of the first Baptist church said he was aghast
at such a gutter type of mentality. JANE ALEXANDER: The White House was flooded
with over 28,000 letters, most of them expressing outrage.
Shortly before the 60 Minutes interview, Ford had announced he was going to run for president
in 1976. The reaction to the first lady's remarks worried Ford's advisors.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: After the 60 Minutes interview, Ford's handlers made a big effort to take
her a little bit out of her high profile role in public life. They were nervous that a lot
of conservative republicans would be unnerved by what they had heard and vote against Gerry
Ford in the primaries as many of them did. JANE ALEXANDER: The initial flood of negative
letters was soon followed by a stream of letter's voicing support for the First Ladies remarks.
Betty's popularity soared. FIRST WOMAN: I like her style. She's straight
forward and she says exactly what she feels. SECOND WOMAN: I admire her for being honest
enough to say it. THIRD WOMAN: I think she's trying to be honest
with us and let us get to know her. SUSAN HARTMANNN: She was a role model. A role
model of how women could be married, could have children. And still believe in their
own ideas and their own thoughts, and that they didn't have to agree with their husbands.
JANE ALEXANDER: One thing the president did not agree with the first lady on was her stance
on abortion rights. But her support of abortion rights did not prevent Betty Ford from being
named as a woman of the year and her poll ratings at one point topped the president's.
SHEILA WEIDENFELD: The situation was totally changed around. People loved her candor. People
loved her openness. JANE ALEXANDER: Even as her popularity skyrocketed,
her health problems continued. DAN RATHER: Betty Ford has been ill this weekend,
reportedly an old case of osteoarthritis flared up.
JANE ALEXANDER: Her painful arthritic condition combined with the demands of being first lady,
exacerbated her dependency on painkillers. JOHN ROBERT GREENE: She is in a world that
places so many demands on her that it is actually inhibiting her ability to help her own health.
SHEILA WEIDENFELD: Because of the osteoarthritis, she was popping a lot of pills. And there
seemed to be no stop, as far as I could see, to the dispensing of the pills and her taking
these. She could be terrific one moment and not so the next. We could make a meeting and
she canceled. It was quite unpredictable. REPORTER: Well sometimes we notice Mrs. Ford
that you speak very slowly, more slowly than usual. Is that a result of tranquilizers or
muscle relaxants? BETTY FORD: No, I just have never learned
to be a rapid-fire speaker. JANE ALEXANDER: President Ford, who was preoccupied
with running a country, later admitted to being in a state of denial about his wife's
condition. His decision to run for office was something Betty supported, despite her
health and some argue Betty's popularity was an asset for Ford.
JOHN ROBERT GREENE: When you say that Betty Ford was popular you have to say popular with
who? She is a lightning rod for the criticism of the far right wing of her own party that
is becoming in it's own with the candidacy of Ronald Reagan.
What she does have is the middle. Betty Ford owned it, in a way that first ladies haven't
owned a portion of the public before or ever since.
JANE ALEXANDER: This beloved first lady was delighting America with her endless antics.
Betty Ford performed over and over again to an adoring public, displaying her keen sense
of humor. JANE ALEXANDER: White House photographer David
Kennerly remembers the day Mrs. Ford flashed him a mischievous smile, hopped up on the
Cabinet room table and struck a pose. DAVID KENNERLY: The photograph is the epitome
of who Betty Ford is. It represented a mischievous sense of humor, a fearlessness in the face
of a male world. I think it definitely exuded her independence.
JANE ALEXANDER: And the West Wing also had plans for Betty.
SHEILA WEIDENFELD: It wasn't until she became very popular with the public that the West
Wing said, "Oh my gosh, she's really popular. I think we can use her."
JANE ALEXANDER: So popular that Betty's supporters put Betty's name on their campaign buttons
and signs. SHEILA WEIDENFELD: And then they used her
incorrectly, and they started to send her everywhere. And her condition became worse.
The osteoarthritis acted up. They booked her far beyond anything she could do. And she
was exhausted. She was tired. She was incoherent in Oakland. She was slurring
all of her words in Buffalo. And the thing I think that actually amazed me is that the
press kept thinking it was her cancer. And her cancer had nothing to do with the way
in which she was dealing with these different campaign trips.
JANE ALEXANDER: Despite her exhaustion and continued dependence on pain killers, Betty
rallied for the Republican convention in the summer of 1976, where Ford acknowledged her
campaign efforts. PRESIDENT FORD: ...and especially my dear
wife Betty. JANE ALEXANDER: The Ford family had fanned
out across the country to campaign for their father.
On election night, the Ford family and staff were cautiously optimistic as they gathered
at the White house. That optimism withered as defeat set in. It was the first election
that Gerald Ford had ever lost. Jimmy Carter beat Ford in one of the closest races in 60
years. BETTY FORD: We were all just really destroyed
by it. In talking to someone they said I voted against your husband but it wasn't against
him, it was against the Republican Party. I felt they had to be punished.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You look at the pictures and you see the kids, who are all down in
the dumps. The president is silent, and suffering, and who is it that in effect kind of pulls
the whole family together and brings that special strength into that situation? Betty
Ford. BETTY FORD: It's been the greatest honor of
my husband's life to have served his country during the two most difficult years in our
history. JANE ALEXANDER: The woman who lost her voice
regained it. Betty Ford gave the concession speech because Ford was hoarse from campaigning.
In January of 1977 the Fords said goodbye to the city that had been their home for nearly
30 years and headed out to finally retire in the California desert.
DAVID KENNERLY: Once inside the helicopter he wanted to circle around the Capitol and
have a last look at the Capitol. And that really was his, his political emotional professional
home. BETTY FORD: Down underneath it all we had
been in Washington for all those years and even though we knew we hadn't planned to stay
there it was the fact that the office had been taken from my husband. And it was kind
of like a blow against you or me. JANE ALEXANDER: The Fords retreated to the
sunshine and palm trees of Rancho Mirage, California.
BETTY FORD: When we came to the desert we had some very good friends out here that tried
their best to make us feel very welcome and very much at home but deep down inside there
is being refused an office, there is a deep hurt and it's there until you finally get
rid of it. JANE ALEXANDER: Within months president and
Mrs. Ford were writing their White House memoirs and it wasn't long before President Ford's
schedule filled up with more than just golf. Betty, who thought she'd see more of her husband,
discovered that was not the case. RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Simply because their
geographical location had changed, didn't mean his DNA changed, and he was going be
as active and well traveled a former president as he had been in Congress, or in the White
House. Your children have basically grown up and moved out. You're suddenly more alone
than you've been in 20 years. SUSAN FORD: They were having a good time.
But it was also a very lonely time because he was gone. And she didn't travel with him
all the time. JANE ALEXANDER: Alone and without the daily
White House schedule, Betty Ford's dependence on painkillers and alcohol grew worse.
BETTY FORD: I tried to combine all that pain medication with drinking at social events.
But it was having a very strong impact on me and my family could see that I wasn't handling
it very well. Of course I thought everything was fine.
SUSAN FORD: I saw a very sluggish person. It was like watching a robot in slow motion.
STEVE FORD: There was some of that during the White House years. But it wasn't often
or prevalent, you'd see her seem to be drowsy at dinner or slur her speech. And at first
you're in denial about these things and even within the family you don't want to talk about
it. It evolved so slowly. It wasn't until later that when they got out of the White
House that there was an alarm that went off in our family. That gosh something's wrong
here JANE ALEXANDER: Susan arranged an intervention
in which all of the family would confront Betty Ford about her addiction. On April 1,
1978, they all gathered in the Ford's living room.
BETTY FORD: April 1st I had always had the children play kind of jokes on me, like all
kids do. But this was no joke. SUSAN FORD: We were honest. We told stories
from our heart. We told the truth. But it was also told with love.
BETTY FORD: I was quite angry with them to think that they could criticize anything that
I had done as a mother or a wife or whatnot because I had spent my life time trying to
make it all well for them. STEVE FORD: Dad's love for her that calmed
her down. He kept cutting through that wall. She'd want to bring the wall up and get mad.
And he just coming in there with love and, you know, that's what kept her going.
JACK FORD: If we hadn't gone through the intervention process, I'm sure that Mother would have died.
BETTY FORD: I was totally destroyed to think I would do something that would have a negative
impact on my family. I had to eventually get over that and realize that this was a disease
I was suffering from. You know eventually I realized my father had been an alcoholic
and I had a brother who was an alcoholic. JANE ALEXANDER: Two days after the intervention,
on her 60th birthday, Betty Ford checked into a treatment program at the Long Beach Naval
Hospital. When she was admitted she courageously allowed her doctor to tell the public about
her drug dependency. But it wasn't until later that she would admit to her alcoholism and
discuss it with Barbara Walters. BETTY FORD: This was a shock when it said
Alcoholic Rehabilitation Service. BARBARA WALTERS: The toughest part for you
was to admit that you were alcoholic. BETTY FORD: The alcohol was something I selected
by choice. I thought how much more do they expect of me. I've been public about everything
and now they want me to suddenly be public about this.
BARBARA WALTERS: About being alcoholic. BETTY FORD: And they said until you admit
it publicly you will never start to get well. I would've gone home and said I can't take
pills you know I have a chemical dependency for pills. But I would have substituted. I
would have gone back and used alcohol instead. JOHN SCHWARZLOSE: When Mrs. Ford came forward
in 1978 and announced her alcoholism/drug addiction, it was like a shockwave. All of
a sudden this hidden disease, this disease that people worked very hard to keep secret
came out of the closet and her announcement truly made it okay for men and women to ask
for help. And still today it has that effect. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty Ford's disease would
once again give new meaning to her life. Three years after recovery, along with the help
of friends and others, she raised millions of dollars to open a pioneering treatment
center. BETTY FORD: I wasn't very comfortable with
the fact they wanted to put my name on it. I felt that it gave me a great deal of responsibility
as for how it turned out and how I turned out.
JOHN SCHWARZLOSE: As a woman still early in her recovery she felt like that was a little
grandiose, a little too personal. She was very aware that people relapse from this disease
and so she would, you know, my name's out there as big as life and I take a drink and
what happens then? JANE ALEXANDER: But President Ford convinced
her to put her name on it telling her it would be a beacon of light.
JACK FORD: It's not the buildings, it's not the facilities. All of those things are exciting
and fun and promising. But I think it was about helping other people. She would go over
there daily and sit with patients and talk to them. Share experiences and provide hope.
GERALD FORD: From the bottom of the collective hearts of the Ford family, we're very proud
of you mom. MICHAEL FORD: She was taking the brokenness
in her life and facing that head on. JANE ALEXANDER: During her own therapy, Betty
Ford saw that many of the treatment facilities catered predominantly to men and she set out
to build a center that was welcoming for both women and men.
The Betty Ford Center would go on to pioneer gender specific treatment, separating the
therapies and living quarters of the men and women.
SUSAN FORD: What we also discovered in studying these patients, is that the women who were
in women-only halls and the men that were in men-only halls were doing better. Women
wouldn't discuss certain issues with men in the room and men kind of felt like they had
to be the pumped up macho. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty Ford was a career woman
and pioneer once again and in their last years together she got more attention than her husband.
She lobbied Congress for health care coverage. She also received many accolades over the
years, one of which was the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
ANNOUNCER: The United States honors a generous citizen, a creative spirit, a valiant woman,
who has struggled for the dignity essential for true freedom.
JANE ALEXANDER: Although she wasn't responsible for the passage of any bills Betty Ford was
still having an impact even after the White House.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: How many first ladies have their name added to the language? To
go to "Betty Ford" means something everyone understands. I mean that's a unique legacy.
ANN CULLEN: President Ford used to kid a little bit about the fact that she was the chairman
of the board and he had only ever been president. And I think the bottom line was he was so
incredibly proud of what she had done at the center, that he didn't have any ego about
the fact that she was getting the press and the publicity.
JANE ALEXANDER: On December 26, 2006 Gerald Ford died. He was 93.
SUSAN FORD: I miss him. We all miss him desperately and I know she does too.
They were true soul mates. And I think that's very hard, to find in any relationship.
BETTY FORD: I'm sure they will remember me in recovery and perhaps with the Equal Rights
Amendment and certainly the breast cancer. Those were all big things for me but if I
hadn't been married to my husband, I never would have had the voice that I did when those
things arose. So being married to him was probably the biggest decision I made and the
best decision I made. JANE ALEXANDER: Betty Ford remained Chairman
at the Betty Ford Center until she was 88. RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think it could be
argued, that she had made more of a contribution to the way people lived their lives, and literally
extend their lives, than not only most first ladies, but probably most presidents.
STEVE FORD: She took two of the biggest stigmatized diseases or whatever you want to call it and
lifted the shame off of them. JANE ALEXANDER: More than she could ever have
imagined, the dancer from Grand Rapids has left her mark. Betty Ford's honesty and courage
has saved the lives of millions and earned her a special place in history.
