Betty Ford

by Lisa McCubbin

  “Come on out to Vail”: Randy Wyrick, “Jerry and Betty Focused the World on Vail,” Vail (CO) Daily, December 25, 2016.

  “It was amazing”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “I, Richard Milhous Nixon”: “President Richard Nixon’s First Inaugural Address,” January 20, 1969 (Richard Nixon Foundation online, video, 17:38), www.nixonfoundation.org/1969/01/president-richard-nixons-first-inaugural-address.

  “the week that changed the world”: Clint Hill with Lisa McCubbin, Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford (New York: Gallery Books, 2016), 384.

  “the chance to visit China was a rare opportunity indeed”: ATTH, 97.

  “I don’t give a damn”: ibid., 96.

  “third-rate burglary”: ibid., 94.

  “an inept effort at God knows what”: TTOML, 142.

  “The Chinese are likely to feed you anything”: ibid., 140.

  “trying to choke down sea slugs”: ibid.

  “The people were enthralled by us”: ibid.

  “Jerry and I thought President Nixon”: ibid., 139.

  he logged 138,000 miles: ATTH, 99.

  had attended college: Terry Ryan, “Son of Vice President Designate Not the Competitive Type,” Nashua (NH) Telegraph, November 9, 1973.

  “Come sit up here”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “I can remember it to this day!”: ibid.

  “You know, a boy did that to me once”: ibid.

  “God, I’d have loved to have seen that!”: ibid.

  “Now, if you have any questions”: ibid.

  “I think I took the same box”: ibid.

  “Mother would come to all my games”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  “Mom!” he hissed. “What are you doing?” . . . “She was just a great mother that way”: ibid.

  “We lived it”: ibid.

  “baby girl”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “the Golubin twins”: ibid.

  “We all got in”: ibid.

  “Susan would come up, and we used to sew”: TTOML, 135.

  “We agreed that I would run”: ATTH, 99.

  “still active enough to practice law”: ibid.

  “He promised me he would retire”: TTOML, 142.

  10: A Five-Dollar Bet

  “Let us think about it”: ATTH, 104.

  “splendid cap”: ibid.

  “What about your promise?”: implied conversation, ibid.

  “That’s the best part”: ibid.

  “But it is highly unlikely Nixon would choose me”: ibid.

  “We’ve talked about it and agreed”: ibid.

  “Has your husband told you to get your hair done?”: TTOML, 146.

  “No . . . I just had it done yesterday”: ibid.

  “Has your husband told you to go out and get a new dress?”: ibid.

  “blood oath”: Thomas M. DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007), 10.

  “I drew the Gerald Ford straw” . . . “He did not seem like a guy who was waiting by the phone”: David Kennerly, in discussion with author, March 30, 2017.

  “Mom, do you think President Nixon”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, March 8, 2017.

  “No, Susan, honestly I don’t”: ibid.; also TTOML, 145.

  “Well, I think it’s going to be him”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, March 8, 2017.

  “All right . . . You’re on”: ibid.

  It was just before six thirty: ATTH, 106.

  “What’s happening, Dad?”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, March 8, 2017.

  “Do you know who it is, dear?”: ibid.

  “The only thing I know”: ibid.; also ATTH, 106.

  “Does Dad know who it’s going to be?”: the scene on pages 111 to 113 was pieced together from information in TTOML (146–47); ATTH (106); Susan Ford Bales, discussion, March 8, 2017; corroborated by Steve Ford and Michael Ford, discussions.

  “a mad dash”: TTOML, 147.

  “Distinguished guests and my fellow Americans”: “Nixon Announces New Vice President,” October 13, 1973 (C-Span online, video, 12:35), www.c-span.org/video/?153731-1/nixon-announces-vice-president.

  “Here’s Betty”: ibid.

  “Not yet”: ibid.

  “They told me to sit with you”: TTOML, 147.

  “Oh, yes, of course”: ibid.

  “Come on, Jerry”: Jerry Bechtle, in discussion with author, October 30, 2017.

  “Jerry . . . I’d like you to meet Jerry Bechtle”: ibid.

  “Nice to meet you”: ibid.

  “No, Jerry, you tell him when it’s time to leave”: ibid.

  “I wasn’t convinced that”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “What are you doing?!”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  “It’s funny now, but we were scared to death”: ibid.

  11: Betty Ford, Second Lady

  “You couldn’t move”: TTOML, 149.

  “May [God] answer you in time of trouble”: ATTH, 112.

  “I am a Ford—not a Lincoln”: ibid.

  “You better tell the vice president”: Bechtle, discussion, October 30, 2017.

  “All right . . . how much?”: ibid.

  “With all the communications”: ibid.

  “My God . . . the house cost only thirty-five thousand”: ibid.

  “We jokingly referred to it”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “For all of us, it was fun for about ten and a half seconds”: ibid.

  “Get down there as fast as you can”: TTOML, 152.

  “I have no doubt whatsoever that the president is not guilty” . . . “What about the drug scene around school?”: The Dick Cavett Show, featuring Vice President Gerald Ford and the Ford family, aired January 10, 1974, on ABC Late Night (Gerald R. Ford Vice-Presidential Papers: Audiotapes, 1973–74, AV82-14-R4, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI).

  “I was never so glad”: TTOML, 152.

  “a thoughtful, pretty woman”: Marks, “Physical, Psychological and Emotional Changes.”

  “I like to think of myself as a feminist”: ibid.

  How do you feel about the Supreme Court’s ruling”: TTOML, 151.

  “I agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling”: ibid.

  “some high school girls who are forced to marry”: Kandy Stroud, “Betty Ford Becomes Instant First Lady,” Times-Sun (West Newton, PA), August 18, 1974.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have said it”: ibid.

  “basically got hammered”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.

  “Ten o’clock. We’ll see you then”: TTOML, 146.

  purchased a third-floor, three-bedroom, $50,000 condo: “Ford loved Vail, and it was mutual,” Denver Post, December 26, 2006.

  “In fact, I learned how to ski”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.

  “I’d go up on the chairlift”: Dick Cavett Show, January 10, 1974.

  “They were so warm and friendly”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.

  “No, no, I hope not”: ibid.

  “It was our last private Christmas”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “Pick Out Your Curtains, Betty”: TTOML, 152.

  “I was so excited for the weekend”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “Just go talk to the agents”: ibid.

  “Daddy is ruining my life!”: ibid.

  “I honestly did not know”: Bob Innamorati, discussion, July 21, 2017.

  “We’ve got tickets to see a concert”: ibid.; also Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “Unfortunately, everything you do”: ibid.

  “They were shutting down my social life”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “Mike is marrying a lovely girl”: Betty Ford to Mary Lou Loga
n, letter, May 16, 1974, courtesy of the Logan family; used with permission.

  Susan wasn’t happy about sharing it: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “Somebody up there has been looking out for me for years”: TTOML, 155.

  “really worried”: Rosalynn Carter, in discussion with author, June 14, 2017.

  “everything begins an hour earlier than it actually does”: ibid.

  a long, yellow knit dress she had borrowed from Nancy Howe: Marks, “Physical, Psychological and Emotional Changes,” https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/53620695/.

  “really quite beautiful”: Kandy Stroud, “She Likes Being Second Lady,” Women’s Wear Daily, Shreveport (LA) Times, April 19, 1974.

  “I’d rather not talk about that”: ibid.

  “Now I’m down to a size eight”: Marks, “Physical, Psychological and Emotional Changes.”

  “What do you think is the role of a political wife?”: Stroud, “She Likes Being Second Lady.”

  “I think we have to be supportive” . . . “sharp as a tack”: ibid.

  “Do you ever become accustomed to this?” . . . “Twenty-five years”: ibid.

  “we were late everywhere we went that day” . . . “No, I don’t know them at all”: Rosalynn Carter, First Lady from Plains (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), 100; also Carter, discussion, June 14, 2017.

  “Can’t I just thank the mayor and sit down?” . . . “I’ve learned to roll with the punches”: Marks, “Physical, Psychological and Emotional Changes”; also Louise Sweeney (staff correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor), “Mrs. Gerald Ford Talks About Her Role as Second Lady,” Daily Messenger (Canandaigua, NY), May 2, 1974.

  “Mrs. Ford, are you on something?”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 100; also Carter, discussion, June 14, 2017.

  “Well, I do take Valium every day”: Stroud, “She Likes Being Second Lady.”

  “Valium, three times a day”: ibid.

  “any blemish on the public’s image”: Carter, First Lady from Plains, 100.

  Betty didn’t realize that she had created a stir: Carter, discussion, June 14, 2017.

  In 1974 Valium was by far the most prescribed drug: Cheryl Pilate, “Valium Becoming Socially Accepted Crutch, Just Like Double Martini,” Colorado Springs (CO) Gazette Telegraph, July 18, 1976.

  “a dope addict”: Stroud, “Betty Ford Becomes Instant First Lady.”

  “I’m candid”: ibid.

  “My parents thought if you had the agents” . . . “before anyone could recognize me”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “The process was like undergoing a physical exam in public view”: ATTH, 110.

  “the National Enquirer was going to write a piece”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.

  “I didn’t know she was married before!”: ibid.

  “Well, yeah, nobody does”: ibid.

  “So, essentially it drove a stake”: ibid.

  “I think this is when my relationship with her got stronger”: ibid.

  “I wasn’t thrilled about it at the time”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  12: The Unthinkable Happens

  When Betty toured the house for the first time: Betty Monkman, interview by Richard Norton Smith, November 17, 2009, Oral History Project, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, Grand Rapids, MI, n.p., https://geraldrfordfoundation.org/centennial-docs/oralhistory/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Betty-Monkman.pdf.

  “It was far more expensive”: ATTH, 7.

  “I want to alert you that things are deteriorating”: ibid., 2.

  “was that Nixon could agree”: ibid., 4.

  “Throughout my political life”: ibid., 5.

  “I want some time to think, Al”: ibid., 4.

  “That was really important to him”: Michael Ford, interview, 12.

  “The exercise at this moment, I felt, was ridiculous”: ATTH, 7.

  “Her eyes widened in disbelief”: ibid., 9.

  “dumbfounded”: ibid.

  “My God, this is going to change our whole life”: ibid.

  “Neither she nor her husband were emotionally prepared to ascend to the White House”: David Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.

  “You should not get involved”: ATTH, 10.

  “I really think he got a lot of strength from her”: Michael Ford, interview, 12.

  “God give us strength” . . . “and He shall direct thy paths”: ATTH, 10.

  “right now I am quite involved”: Betty Ford to Mary Lou Logan, letter, August 2, 1974, courtesy of the Logan family; used with permission.

  “I didn’t see it”: TTOML, 2.

  “Every time you went in and out”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  “Nixon is going to announce his resignation”: ATTH, 29.

  “Up until then”: TTOML, 2.

  “dragging a U-Haul”: ibid.

  “Here I was working with all these guys”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  “I was numb”: TTOML, 2.

  “[S]he was not particularly well”: Michael Ford, interview, 12.

  “People were crying”: TTOML, 3.

  “My heavens, they’ve even rolled out the red carpet”: ibid.; also ATTH, 39.

  “The moment was terribly painful” . . . “Goodbye, Mr. President”: ATTH, 39.

  What does he think he has won?: Clint Hill, in discussion with author, August 9, 2017.

  “We couldn’t help but feel sorry”: Kennerly, Extraordinary Circumstances, 25.

  “We can do it. We’re ready”: ATTH, 40.

  “Most presidents get nominated”: Kennerly, Extraordinary Circumstances, 26.

  “At that historic moment”: ATTH, 40.

  “Mr. Vice President, are you prepared to take the oath of office”: ibid.

  “The words cut through me”: TTOML, 4.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States”: “Gerald Ford Sworn in as President of the United States,” August 9, 1974 (C-Span online, video, 11:32), www.c-span.org/video/?320430-1/gerald-ford-sworn-president-united-states.

  “Mr. Chief Justice, my dear friends, my fellow Americans”: ibid.

  “Way to go, Jerry!”: Kennerly, Extraordinary Circumstances, 28.

  “The morning had begun with tears”: TTOML, 159.

  “Jerry, something’s wrong here”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  “She had a fantastic sense of humor”: Kennerly, discussion, March 30, 2017.

  “David, I want you to stay after everyone else leaves” . . . “glad to have me as an advocate for them in the White House”: ibid.

  “David Kennerly, call the operator” . . . “you are there for a lot of very personal moments”: ibid.

  PART 3: BETTY FORD, FIRST LADY

  “Okay, I’ll move to the White House”: TTOML, 158.

  13: The Ford White House

  “Mrs. Ford, we are just wondering”: TTOML, 162; also Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “What state dinner?”: ibid.

  “King Hussein is coming on the sixteenth”: ibid.

  “Why don’t you go ask a few members”: Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, in discussion with author, December 8, 2016.

  “Literally ten months earlier”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  “I guess we should send them to Goodwill”: DeFrank, Write It When I’m Gone, 43.

  “Jerry, I think some of this stuff may be a little important now”: ibid.

  “depressing”: Susan Ford Bales, discussion, October 6, 2016.

  “It was Pepto-Bismol pink”: ibid.

  “Susan has always wanted a brass bed”: ibid.

  “Oh, a brass bed really doesn’t fit the era”: ibid.

  “If you have a brass bed in storage”: ibid.

  “Jerry and I have shared the same bed”: ibid.

  “Clem Conger’s taste was impeccable”: TTOML, 175.

  “She didn’t want to have the pr
esidency make her something she wasn’t”: Dick Hartwig, in discussion with author, September 15, 2016.

  “I really don’t consider it my house”: Associated Press, “First Lady Gets Tour of the White House,” Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA), August 14, 1974.

  “People started saying I was disgraceful”: TTOML, 157.

  “Fords Bring Dancing Back to White House”: United Press International, “Ford Brings Dancing Back to White House,” Holland (MI) Evening Sentinel, August 17, 1974.

  “It was one of the liveliest parties in the executive mansion”: ibid.

  “It’s a very strange feeling”: TTOML, 165.

  “Passkey” . . . “Panda”: Hill, discussion, August 9, 2017.

  “Crown”: ibid.

  “a very traumatic experience”: TTOML, 165.

  “The day the Fords came into the White House” . . . “It was so refreshing”: Robert Alberi, in discussion with author, March 21, 2017.

  Dear _______ . . . they appreciate the effort you made to convey your opinions: First Lady Correspondence file, box FL-5-1, 10/74–12/74, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI.

  “that is not the group you want to hang out with”: Steve Ford, discussion, November 23, 2016.

  The press focused on the aftermath: Patricia J. Matson, interview by Donna Lehman, January 16, 2015, Oral History Project, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, 2, https://geraldrfordfoundation.org/centennial-docs/oralhistory/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Patricia-J.-Matson.pdf.

  Wearing a tailored shirtdress in a warm butter yellow: “First Lady Press Conference,” September 4, 1974, NPC film 1211-128-75, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI; copy provided to author courtesy of GRF Library.

  “At least my checkbook has to balance” . . . “Bonnie, I hoped you were keeping it for me!”: ibid.

  “I’m all for babies” . . . “But they definitely do not like it and it is not used”: Susan Peterson, CBS News, September 8, 1974, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Ann Arbor, MI, WHCA F757; Mrs. Ford composite tape 1974. Copy provided to author courtesy of GRF Library.

  Ford Kids Probably Tried Pot, The Brownsville Herald (TX), September 8, 1974, https://www.newspapers.com/image/23530305.

  “she is like champagne”: Myra McPherson, “The Blooming of Betty Ford,” McCall’s, September 1975.

  “Betty Ford, in the first month of her stay”: Sally Quinn, “Betty Ford: Speaking Out Without Speaking Up,” Washington Post, September 18, 1974.