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Betty Bloomer Warren Ford
Date of Birth: April 8, 1918
Married: Ocyober 14, 1948 - Gerald Ford
Children: 4 |
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- Mrs Ford was a former Powers model
and dance instructor
- After taking a job as a window designer
and buyer at a local department store in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
she married a furniture salesman, William Warren
- She was divorced by mutual agreement
five years later
- The Warren's had no children
- She met and married Jerry Ford shortly
thereafter.
- On their honeymoon night they stopped
at a political rally for Thomas Dewey, and went on to attend
the Michigan-Northwestern football game
- As First Lady she went public to disclose
she had breast cancer, a bout she lost to a mastectomy in 1974
- Following her tenure in the White
House she treated herself to a face lift in 1978, and in the
same year again went public to announce her open addiction to
alcohol and pain medication
- Her valiant efforts to overcome her
dependency led to the founding of the Betty Ford Clinic, which
opened in 1982
- Mrs. Ford received the Medal of Freedom
from President Bush in 1991
- As First Lady she assembled a staff
whose full time responsibility was to write Congressmen in support
of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, which eventually
failed to pass
- She championed the rights of women
and also fought to liberalize abortion laws
- When Gerald Ford ran for re-election
bumper stickers appeared that read "Vote for Betty's Husband!"
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