First ladies, past and present, and others who called the White House home remembered Betty Ford on Tuesday, not just for her decades-long work against substance abuse but for contributing to a political era when friendship among lawmakers helped them govern.
First lady Michelle Obama, accompanied by former first ladies Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Rodham Clinton, strode quietly into St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in this desert resort town and took their seats next to former President George W. Bush in one of the first-row pews as services began.
Bush, accompanied by former first lady Nancy Reagan, arrived just a few minutes ahead of Mrs. Obama and the others. The former president, wearing a dark suit, blue tie and white shirt, chatted quietly with Reagan as they waited for the services to begin. He greeted Clinton as the secretary of state and former first lady took a seat next to him.
Others expected to attend included President Richard Nixon’s daughters, Tricia Nixon-Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower; President Lyndon Johnson’s daughters, Lucie Baines Johnson and Lynda Bird Johnson Robb; and Robb’s husband, former U.S. Sen. Charles Robb.
Former first lady Betty Ford died of natural causes in California on Friday, at the end of an extraordinary life during which she turned a short tenure as First lady into activism which affected the national political climate. As Donnie Radcliffe reported:
Betty Ford, a self-proclaimed “ordinary” woman who never cared for political life but made a liberating adventure out of her 30 months as first lady, died Friday at age 93.
“I decided that if the White House was our fate,” she once said of Gerald R. Ford’s brief presidency, “I might as well have a good time doing it.”
To the surprise of some and the consternation of others, Mrs. Ford evolved as an activist first lady whose non-threatening manner coupled with her newfound celebrity provided the women’s movement with an impressive ally. Undaunted by critics, she campaigned for ratification of the ill-starred Equal Rights Amendment, championed liberalized abortion laws and lobbied her husband to name more women to policymaking government jobs.
“Perhaps it was unusual for a first lady to be as outspoken about issues as I was, but that was my temperament, and I believed in it,” she said in an interview for this paper at her Rancho Mirage, Calif., home in 1994. “I don’t like to be dishonest, so when people asked me, I said what I thought.”
Her husband, who died in 2006, was a longtime Michigan congressman who became House minority leader. He served as Richard M. Nixon’s vice president before the Watergate scandal led him to succeed Nixon, who resigned Aug. 9, 1974, and become the nation’s 38th president. Mrs. Ford had not wanted her husband to be president, but once he took office, she was determined that Americans know him as one with integrity.
Betty Ford planned for the event of her death, and at her request her farewell focused on bipartisan politics and the comraderie they shared during her time in Washington. Speakers included Cokie Roberts and Rosalynn Carter, as Reliable Source reported:
They don’t talk about it much, but it’s common practice for former presidents and first ladies to design their own funeral programs. Ford, who died Friday at age 93, will have two: a memorial Tuesday in California attended by Michelle Obama, and a funeral Thursday in Michigan, where she’ll be buried next to her husband.
In 2006, Cokie Roberts got a call from Ford’s daughter Susan: her mom wanted Roberts to deliver a eulogy, whenever that time came, at her funeral.
“Wow — that’s an incredible honor,” the veteran D.C. journalist replied. Then, she recalls, Susan gave Roberts her assignment: “Mother wants you to talk about the way things used to be.”
Meaning?
“A time in Washington when Democrats and Republicans used to be friends, when their families were all friends,” Roberts told us Monday. “The main message she wanted me to say is when you’re friends, government works. It’s like she planned it for this week.”
Roberts was one of three speakers chosen for Tuesday’s memorial. Ford also asked her successor Rosalynn Carter, as well as Geoffrey Mason of the Betty Ford Center. Ford’s body will travel to Michigan for the interment Thursday at the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. Lynne Cheney (her husband served as President Ford’s White House chief of staff) and biographer Richard Norton Smith will give eulogies at the funeral.
All of Ford’s family — four children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren — are expected to attend the services, but none has been announced as speakers.
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