“Who would make a better president”: Weidenfeld, First Lady’s Lady, 303.
“when her polls were just skyrocketing”: Maria Downs, interview by Richard Norton Smith, June 18, 2009, Oral History Project, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, 25, https://geraldrfordfoundation.org/centennial-docs/oralhistory/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Maria-Downs.pdf.
Across the country: Greg Willard, in discussion with author, November 17, 2017.
“Coming into the convention”: ibid.
“Nothing was more important” . . . “As usual, she was right”: ATTH, 405.
“Suddenly,” President Ford recalled, “I felt her hand in mine”: ibid.
“It was something we as a family all came to embrace”: Michael Ford, discussion, October 26, 2017.
“We took that motor home from California”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016; also Weidenfeld, First Lady’s Lady, 356.
“Steve’s mother” . . . “go and get your tape recorder”: United Press International, “Betty, Steve Woo Calif. Vote,” Town Talk (Alexandria, LA), October 20, 1976, 41.
“I have something for you”: TTOML, 265.
“troubled, and they have been tough”: Maury DeJonge, “Home Ground Never So Dear for the Fords,” Grand Rapids (MI) Press, November 2, 1976.
“we’re going to make America great again”: ibid., 2B.
“I just want to say how absolutely”: ibid.
19: Last Days in the White House
“Here we go, Prez!”: Willard, discussion, April 2, 2017.
“there wasn’t a darn thing that I could do”: ATTH, 434.
“Do you think we should wake him up?” . . . “Governor, I hope you know”: Willard, discussion, April 2, 2017.
“You know, I had the craziest thing”: ibid.; also Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“Oh, Mother, you won’t believe”: ibid.
“Okay, everyone, it’s going to be a busy day”: Willard, discussion, April 2, 2017.
“Good night”: ibid.
“Oh, Mrs. Ford, I’m so sorry”: ibid.
“Now, you listen to me”: ibid.
“crying like a baby” . . . “She could have been despondent”: ibid.
“was a day when more than a few tears were shed”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.
“I can’t talk” . . . “I can’t read the concession speech”: ibid.
“Of course I will”: ibid.
“It’s perfectly obvious” . . . “Now let me call on the real spokesman”: “President Ford Concession Speech,” November 3, 1976 (C-Span online, video, 5:32), www.c-span.org/video/?153625-1/president-ford-concession-speech.
“Don’t show any emotion”: Mary Murphy, “What Do You Do for an Encore,” New West, November 21, 1977.
“The president asked me to tell you” . . . “Signed Jerry Ford”: “Ford Concession Speech,” November 3, 1976.
All I have to do is get us all through: Murphy, “What Do You Do for an Encore.”
“People with low self-esteem crave reassurance”: BAGA, 58.
“We’ll Miss You, Betty Ford”: Judy Clabes, “We’ll Miss You, Betty Ford,” Evansville (IN) Press, January 1, 1977.
“We walked by the Cabinet Room” . . . “I think that’ll about wrap it up for this place”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.
“We were all human beings”: TTOML, 277.
“I’m sure her thoughts are as deep”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, xxi.
“The food is so delicious there”: ibid.
“All our married life was being left there”: TTOML, 278.
PART 4: BETTY FORD, AFTER THE WHITE HOUSE
“Something has to be done about Mother”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
20: “Kiss Today Goodbye”
$375,000 house they leased: David S. Smith, “Ford Reveals Final Home Site,” Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), January 29, 1977, 1.
“Office of the Thirty-Eighth President of the United States”: Willard, discussion, April 2, 2017.
“Those of us on the staff”: ibid.
“Mrs. Ford, a bunch of us have been talking” . . . “Well, then, let’s get four tickets”: ibid.
“If today were the day you had to stop dancing”: “What I Did for Love,” music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban.
“Kiss today goodbye”: ibid.
“Wasn’t it wonderful, Jerry?” . . . “The choreography was marvelous!”: Willard, discussion, April 2, 2017.
“Follow-up—Venker. Passkey’s ready”: ibid.
Oh my God. That song . . .“What I Did for Love” was their song: ibid.
“Greg, can you come down here to the house”: ibid.
“As you can see” . . . “You should be able to go home by early afternoon”: ibid.
“By late afternoon, she was clearly not well” . . . “keep her here overnight”: ibid.
“Tell us what you’re not looking for” . . . “It just doesn’t make sense”: ibid.
“something was not right”: ibid.
21: A Downward Spiral
“I had a long hallway”: Dr. Joseph Cruse, in discussion with author, July 25, 2017.
“I introduced myself” . . . “It was a genuine smile”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
What do you say when you are facing the former president’s wife . . . “There were good days and bad days”: ibid.
“a bad summer”: Murphy, “What Do You Do for an Encore.” New West, November 21, 1977.
“Betty Ford looked five years older”: ibid.
“Poor darling”: Gramshammer, discussion, November 10, 2016.
“Fine, but we’re not going to support you financially”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“They went from a modest life”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“Betty going on and on and on”: Chris Chase, interview by Richard Norton Smith, January 21, 2011, Oral History Project, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, https://geraldrfordfoundation.org/centennial-docs/oralhistory/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Chris-Chase.pdf.
“She always had iced tea”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“It was an art that she had perfected” . . . “Oh, Caroline, you’re not fooling me”: ibid.
“Sometimes she would surprise you” . . . “they just couldn’t tolerate being around her”: ibid.
“Wherever I went that fall” . . . “kind of a zombie”: BAGA, 42.
“She was painfully lonely”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“knew how to take care of her”: ibid.
“I was not a professional”: BAGA, 41.
22: The Turning Point
“That was her juggling act” . . . “They rarely quarreled”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“Caroline would come home and tell me”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“Susan was really there for me”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“She would say her neck hurt”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
So Jerry would tell everyone: BAGA, 42.
“Dad and I covered for her” . . . “She was not a daytime drinker”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“We wanted to carry on as if everything was fine”: Michael Ford, discussion, October 26, 2017.
“Eating with her was torturous” . . . “Just trying to make it”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“She was not in good shape”: Tom Brokaw, in discussion with author, August 22, 2017.
“We sat in the bedroom”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“The Wonderful World of Disney will not be presented” . . . “enduring popularity”: Betty Ford: Nutcracker at the Bolshoi Ballet, aired December 14, 1977, on NBC. Video provided to author by Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI, AV83-11-44 and AV83-11-45.
“That was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
&n
bsp; “Yeah, it was”: ibid.
“something of a disaster” . . . “sloe eyed and sleepy tongued”: BAGA, 41.
“And they were right”: ibid.
“Christmas vacation in Vail that year was utter hell”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“She was incoherent”: BAGA, 8.
“Caroline, can’t you just get Mom dressed in the morning?” . . . “Mother’s problem”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“We were up in Vail, there was a lot of good snow”: BAGA, 8.
“in second gear” . . . “increasingly difficult to lead a normal life”: ibid., 22.
“She was scared to death”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017; also Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“I understand what’s wrong with you”: ibid.
“The agents warned me not to get involved” . . . “She had lived through all of that as a child”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“That was a rude awakening” . . . “I’ll talk to Susan”: ibid.
“I didn’t know anything about Alcoholics Anonymous”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“You’re talking about your mother, aren’t you?”: ibid.; also Cruse, discussion, July 25, 2017.
“Yes. I just don’t know what to do”: ibid.
The intervention technique had been developed: “Johnson Model Intervention,” Interventionsupport.com, accessed January 16, 2017, www.interventionsupport.com/intervention-techniques/johnson-model.
“I knew she had a problem”: Cruse, discussion, July 25, 2017.
“Joe,” he said, “can’t you go do it by yourself?”: ibid.
“He didn’t want to do it”: ibid.
“I did a little self-prescribing”: BAGA, 166.
23: The Intervention and Treatment
“We have to do something now”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“You are all a bunch of monsters!”: ibid.; also BAGA, 11.
“I was devastated”: ibid.
“It was a big mistake” . . . “Don’t worry, she’s said that before”: Cruse, discussion, July 25, 2017.
“Boy, was I glad she was there”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“Don’t worry,” Clara said, “Mother’s fine”: ibid.
“Captain Pursch was quite a personality”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
A Chicago native: Allan Parachini and the Los Angeles Times, “The Navy Way to Beat the Bottle,” Washington Post, March 13, 1979, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1979/03/13/the-navy-way-to-beat-the-bottle/a42f6d85-7d19-430c-9cea-4d19695918c4/?utm_term=.6809d34f4d26.
“When I met Pat Benedict”: BAGA, 14.
“We’ve got to do this for Mother”: ibid.
“You felt very, very guilty”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“The doctors literally gave us a set of instructions”: BAGA, 17.
“We began to understand the nature of chemical dependence”: ibid., 14.
“It was so tense”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“No one had ever seen her cry like that before”: ibid.
“I had given my whole life to my family”: Betty Ford, in A Legacy of Hope, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, YouTube, December 6, 2016, 53.39, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNBKYQ1LM2c.
“Mrs. Ford, are you willing to go into treatment?”: BAGA, 23.
“Betty, I have had a problem”: ibid.
“I got dressed and put myself together”: ibid., 24.
“sedated to the teeth”: ibid.
President Ford was stunned: ibid., 42.
“I was more concerned with the pills”: ibid.
“There were bottles and bottles and bottles”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“I took out an entire grocery bag”: Cruse, discussion, July 25, 2017.
“It was like the family was a family once again”: BAGA, 25.
“It was horrible what that body went through”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“It was miserable”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“I shook so much”: BAGA, 26.
“President Ford was very strong”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“Why does she keep throwing up?” . . . “celebrated in the kitchen with glasses of Cranapple juice”: BAGA, 27.
“I want her up and dressed and at that party”: ibid., 28.
“I marveled that I was able to eat”: ibid.
“It had been a brutal week”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“I believe you have to treat VIPs”: BAGA, 46.
“I almost turned right around”: ibid.
“She was a wreck” . . . “She had lost all her privacy”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017; also BAGA, 47.
“Former First Lady Betty Ford was hospitalized”: press release from Caroline Coventry Morgan, personal files.
“Policies and Routine for Patients”: information from Caroline Coventry Morgan, personal files related to Eisenhower Medical Center, alcohol rehabilitation treatment.
“Six-Pack”: BAGA, 53.
“addicted to drugs and drink”: ibid.
“I was not a model patient”: ibid, 48.
“They had to clean the toilets”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“I could not say I was alcoholic”: BAGA, 51.
“not a quiver in her voice”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“The hand I held gave me strength and faith”: ibid.
“I wasn’t convinced”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“No, he didn’t! . . . I’m the one that did all the work”: ibid.
“The whole family is so raw” . . . “When is it going to be my turn?”: ibid.
“For the first time”: BAGA, 63–64.
“I was so offended”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.
“Steve, this is exactly what your mother needs”: ibid.
“Her doctors would prescribe whatever she wanted”: BAGA, 63.
“I made the dumb statement”: ibid.
“Steve, is your mother an alcoholic?”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.
“I know that the problem exists”: Myra McPherson and Donnie Radcliffe, “Betty Ford Says She Is Addicted to Alcohol,” Washington Post, April 22, 1978, A5; also United Press International, “Son Says Drugs, Drink, Affected Mrs. Ford,” April 15, 1978.
Betty still had not admitted: TTOML, 284.
“She had begun to pull back”: Cruse, discussion, July 25, 2017.
“We are here because something”: ibid.
“If you’re going to call me an alcoholic, I won’t stand for it”: Morgan, discussion, May 20, 2017.
“So far, you have talked”: BAGA, 53.
“I don’t want to embarrass my husband” . . . “he had to shock her”: ibid., 54.
“He knew that if she put it”: Morgan, discussion, May 20, 2017.
“I cried so hard my nose and ears were closed up”: BAGA, 55.
“Here is the statement from Mrs. Ford”: Gerald Faris, “I’m Addicted to Alcohol—Betty Ford,” Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1978.
“she opened the door for women to seek treatment”: Pat Benedict, in A Legacy of Hope, video.
“To the laymen, it was just a statement”: Morgan, discussion, May 20, 2017.
“We’ve never had too much success”: Faris, “I’m Addicted to Alcohol—Betty Ford.”
“Mrs. Ford is a gutsy lady” . . . “medications any of us would get”: ibid.
Barrett emphatically denied: Bob Locke, Associated Press, “Betty Ford Says She’s Hooked on Alcohol as Well as Medicine,” April 21, 1978.
“My drinking hasn’t caused my folks any trouble”: BAGA, 58.
“I’m Betty, and I am an alcoholic”: ibid.
it would take more than two years: ibid., 48.
“We learned that alcoholism kind of comes in two ways”: Morgan, discussion, May 20,
2017.
“I was astonished at the amount of newspaper coverage”: BAGA, 60.
“People don’t understand the mood swings” . . . “I could kill you for doing this to me!”: ibid., 56.
“She was so angry” . . . “I was a mess”: Morgan, discussion, May 20, 2017.
“Part of it was this is a family disease”: Michael Ford, discussion, October 26, 2017.
“No, I won’t do it”: BAGA, 61.
“It was a crisis”: ibid.
“Mrs. Ford how do you feel” . . . “I know that she felt so vulnerable”: Morgan, discussion, May 20, 2017.
“Nobody had consulted me” . . . “It was a cruel intrusion”: BAGA, 69–70.
“What she has done is the most significant advance”: Phyllis Battelle, “Betty Ford May Change Course of Million Lives,” Brownsville (TX) Herald, May 8, 1978.
“alcohol addiction is a physical disease, not a moral sin”: ibid.
“Betty Ford has earned the admiration”: Associated Press, “Betty Ford Called Most Popular,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 1978.
24: Recovery
“Thousands of them”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“I was on a high”: BAGA, 65.
“You’re not here to play former first lady”: ibid.
“Once in a while, during the first year of my sobriety”: ibid., 69.
“She must be drinking again”: ibid., 70.
“I know you were kidding” . . . “This was dangerous stuff”: ibid., 71.
“The evening went beautifully”: ibid., 73.
“The president was very supportive”: Morgan, discussion, May 19, 2017.
“There’s been such a precipitous increase”: Carol Kleiman, “Giving a Lift to the Face-Lift Business,” Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1978.
“Betty is supposed to be opposed to another campaign” . . . “Her manner and voice bore no resemblance”: Myra MacPherson, “Betty Ford Night at the Waldorf,” Washington Post, November 11, 1978.
“It was a very rocky relationship”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“It was a surprise for everybody”: Alberi, discussion, March 21, 2017.
“I hope you’ve thought about this”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
“I was throwing things back”: ibid.
“Susan was our youngest child”: BAGA, 75.
“There was no fondness there”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, February 17, 2017.
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