Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer

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Betty Ford: First Lady, Women's Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer Page 45

by Lisa McCubbin


  “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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