Ford Betty - Betty Ford: First Lady, womens advocate, survivor, trailblazer

Also by Lisa McCubbin

Coauthored with Clint Hill

Mrs. Kennedy and Me

Five Days in November

Five Presidents

Coauthored with Gerald Blaine

The Kennedy Detail

Gallery Books

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Copyright 2018 by Life Stories, LLC

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First Gallery Books hardcover edition September 2018

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Interior design by Jaime Putorti

Jacket design by John Vairo Jr.

Jacket photograph by David Hume Kennerly

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McCubbin, Lisa, author.

Title: Betty Ford : First Lady, Womens Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer / Lisa McCubbin ; foreword by Susan Ford Bales.

Description: New York : Gallery Books, 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018009239 (print) | LCCN 2018025870 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501164743 (eBook) | ISBN 9781501164682 (hardback)

Subjects: LCSH: Ford, Betty, 19182011. | Presidents spousesUnited StatesBiography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women. | HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.

Classification: LCC E867 (ebook) | LCC E867 .M43 2018 (print) | DDC 973.925092 [B] dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018009239

ISBN 978-1-5011-6468-2

ISBN 978-1-5011-6474-3 (ebook)

To anyone who is facing what seems to be an insurmountable struggle, may you find comfort, strength, and hope in Betty Fords story.

And to Clint

Like Betty Ford, your courage and resilience epitomize the capability of the human spirit. I am beyond grateful for your unwavering support, love, and incomparable wisdom. It is truly a blessing to have you by my side throughout this journey.

S he was known by many names: First Lady, Betty, Gramma, Second Lady, Mrs. Ford, Elizabeth Bloomer; in fact, she even came to be known as a location: He went to Betty Ford . I knew each of those names, but I proudly called her by another: Mom.

Mom has been gone for nearly seven years. Yet the permanence of her various names and their examples for future generations shine today as brightly as ever.

Mom wrote two autobiographical books. The first was a memoir written shortly after we left the White House. The second was the poignant story of her journey to confront (and eventually triumph over) breast cancer, alcoholism, and addiction to painkillers. So when Lisa McCubbin approached me regarding her plans to write a book about Mom, I was skeptical. Surely, I told Lisa, everything that could or should be written about Mom had long since been written and relegated to the history stacks; what relevance could Mom have today, especially to the current generation of young women and girls? Needless to say, and as readers will experience throughout Lisas narrative, my skepticism has been shattered. Quite simply, Lisa has given voice to what is apparent: this would have been Moms third book.

There was a time when the notion that a womans place is in the home was commonplaceMom showed by word and deed the folly of that paradigm. There was a time when the words breast and cancer were never uttered in public, much less togetherbut Mom, as first lady, brought both words permanently into the public square by announcing I have breast cancer. From that moment on, womens health care around the world changed forever. There was a time when alcoholism and addiction to painkillers ravaged our nation, hidden in complete silence and shamebut Moms very public conquest of those diseases and her creation of the Betty Ford Center erased the silence and shame. There was a time when womens rights and equality of opportunities for women were ignored by policy makersbut Moms unwavering voice for the Equal Rights Amendment, Title IX, and the rights of women in the workplace and elsewhere forced those issues into the mainstream. And there was a time when the wife of a national leader would never even consider advocating policies diametrically opposite those of her husband and his supportersbut Mom (and Dad) showed America that disagreeing, without being disagreeable, could (and should) be an acceptable norm for such discussions.

Readers will learn about the extraordinary efforts Mom and others made to confront those challenges and the lessons young people today can learn from their efforts.

But if readers think theyre about to embark upon nothing more than a journey of continuous personal achievements, White House gossip and intrigue, and stories of an idyllic family and a Midwestern wifes healthy and blissful ninety-three years, they will find those expectations misplaced. With impeccably researched personal and historical details, this book paints a lifes tapestry of joy, heartache, accomplishment, and work yet to be done. There are passages that inspire; others that evoke tears of sadness; others that are hilarious; and, yes, even portions that I personally may have preferred to have been omitted.

In short, this is the story of Betty Ford, told with honesty, compassion, and candor. And, in the end, a finer embodiment of what Mom would have expected from such a book there could never be.

I miss her.

Susan Ford Bales

April 2018

A pril 1, 1978. It was a day everyone there would remember with such visceral, painful clarity that talking about it decades later would still trigger tears and a lump in the throat. As they walked past the olive tree and up to the front door, there was a heavy silence in the desert air. Each of them held a piece of paper scrawled with dark secrets none of them had ever dared speak. They knew that what they were about to do would break her to pieces. For all of them, it was the hardest thing theyd ever had to do, but theyd all agreed there was no other choice. They loved her too much to lose her.

Inside, Betty Ford, a week shy of her sixtieth birthday, had no idea what was about to happen. She had risen, gone through her normal morning routine, and was dressed, as usual, in her quilted pink satin robe. She rarely wore makeup these days, and it was almost hard to believe that just fifteen months earlier shed been first lady of the United States and had appeared on national television with her hair perfectly coiffed, makeup camera ready, wearing a well-coordinated sweater and skirt as she gave ABC News correspondent Barbara Walters a tour of the residential quarters of the White House. Betty had always dressed wellher love of fashion was born out of years as a model and dancerbut somehow her world had spiraled into such despair that these days that pastel robe had become her fashion statement. None of the others would be able to recall what he or she was wearing, but theyd all remember Bettys pink robe.

Outside, Dr. Joseph Pursch looked at his watch and said, Its time. He made eye contact with each of thema final reassurance that what they were about to do was absolutely necessary. It was a matter of life or death.