CSPAN First Ladies Betty Ford
April 9, 2014
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY FORD, FORMER FIRST LADY: Being lady like does not require silence. Why should my
husband's job or yours prevent us from being ourselves? I do not believe that being First Lady should
prevent me from expressing my ideas.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN, HOST: Betty Ford spoke her mind. Pro-choice and a supporter of the Equal Rights
Amendment, she and President Gerald Ford openly discussed her experience with breast cancer. For
much of her family's public life, she struggled with drug and alcohol dependency and confronting it
defined her post-White House years.
Good evening and welcome to C-SPAN Series First Ladies: Influence and Image. Tonight, we'll tell
you the story of Elizabeth Bloomer Ford, the wife of our 38th president, President Gerald Ford. And
here for the next 90 minutes to tell her story, is Richard Norton Smith, Presidential historian. If you've
been watching our series, you'd know him. He's one of our academic advisers for the whole project.
And he has helped launch a number of Presidential libraries, among them the Gerald R. Ford Library
in Michigan. Along the way, we should tell them that you developed a relationship with the Fords.
So, you bring that to the table as well.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Oh sure, the interest of full
disclosure. I tried to be as objective as possible but I was very fortunate to become good friends with
both of the Fords.
SUSAN SWAIN: Well we want to start tonight's story where we left off, which is that night in
August of 1974, when the Fords learned that they were going to be in the White House. How much of
a surprise was it for them when they heard the news?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You know, it's just one of the things that I find astonishing almost 40
years later. I recently took part in an oral -- of extensible oral history project which included about
150 of the Ford associates, including all their children.
And, you know you would think every other American household, the summer of 1974 at some point,
sat around the dinner table, discussing what was happening and what might happen in the White
House. The only dinner table in America where that discussion apparently never took place was the
Fords. For Mrs. Ford, I think it really was a case of denial in a lot of ways.
You know she said, August 9th, 1974 was the saddest day of her life. I think in part, she felt badly for
the country but even more, you know, she felt badly for Pat Nixon and the Nixon family, who were
good friends of the Fords.
And finally, she had never - you know, he had never aspired to the presidency. She was, I think, even
more reluctant with the idea of going and she really didn't find out until about a week before it
happened.
SUSAN SWAIN: Among the video pieces that you'll see during our program tonight are some clips
with the Ford family children. The next one, and first one up, is Steve Ford. We talked to him a year
ago at the conference on first ladies and will include some of the pieces of that interview tonight.
Tonight is one -- as we begin tonight is on the family's transition in August from their home in
Alexandria, Virginia and the vice presidency to the White House. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALE: Mrs. Ford has a - Mrs. Ford has a hope you would get out of politics. What is her reaction to
the heavy responsibility?
(LAUGHTER)
PRES. GERALD FORD: Well, she's just doing her best and we'll wait and see about the others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE FORD, SON OF GERALD FORD: First of all, you have to remember, after dad got sworn
in, the day Nixon resigned and I think everybody remembers is a image of Nixon's helicopter, him
saying goodbye to his staff, family, friends on the South Lawn of the White House. Helicopter leaves,
we go into the East room of the White House where dad puts his hand on the Bible, mom holds the
Bible, oath of office.
We're sitting there, we go take a family portrait in the Oval Office. Nixon has cleared off his desk.
What people don't remember is we didn't get to move into the White House, because Nixon -- we
lived in our own little home back in Alexandria, Virginia, a little four-bedroom house in suburbia.
And because Nixon resigned so quickly, so unexpectedly, they weren't able to pack up all their
belongings. And so they left their daughter and son-in-law, David Eisenhower to pack up all -- it took
seven or eight days.
So we went back to our little house in Alexandria, Virginia. Dad's just become President of the
United States.
(LAUGHTER)
And we're eating dinner around the table. But I'll never forget, mom was sitting there cooking dinner
that night and she looks over at my dad and she goes, "Jerry, something's wrong here. You just
became President of the United States and I'm still cooking.” I mean, that wasn't our reality for the
next seven days, eight days, before we moved in to the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: But when they transitioned to the White House, it was that basic American normal
family...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: ... that really got so much coverage. I remember and you probably do ...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: ... news reports of the president toasting his own English muffin at the White
House.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, the famous picture of him, yes, the fact is that Mrs. Ford was
never a morning person. I suspect he had been toasting his own English muffins for many, many
years. That was not something -- but, but you're right. The idea was even more than that. You know,
everyone remembers those famous pictures of Richard Nixon at the helicopter with the V. And what
they don't know is what President Ford -- soon-to-be President Ford -- said to his wife on the way
back into the White House.
Because he realized his job was to reassure the country and if he couldn't reassure his wife, he
couldn't reassure the country. And he leaned over and just whispered in her ear, "We can do it.” And
it was just the right thing to say. He said a lot of right things that day. You know -- now, there were a
lot of problems and controversies that ensued, but you're right. There was a sense that -- it's as if the
country had been building up, you know to this thunderstorm and the storm raged for a while and
then, suddenly, you know the clouds parted and it was normal again.
There were people in the White House who we could recognize and relate to. One of her, you know,
you have to remember this was -- so totally, it was like going to live on another planet for these
people.
The first days she actually lived in the White House, she didn't understand, she would walk through
the halls and say hello to people when she saw them -- secret service agents, you know, household
personnel, whatever -- that was her nature. And no one spoke back to her.
And she finally went to Rex Scouten, the legendary curator and said, "Am I doing something wrong?
Do they dislike us for being here?" And she (ph) was explains, "Oh no, the Nixons who were
somewhat more formal, had established that practice.” And so word went out to the White House
staff, it's OK to talk to the first family. And before long, stories about President Ford and "The
Butler," about whom the movie was made recently, comparing football scores. They became old shoe
almost overnight.
SUSAN SWAIN: What's been so enjoyable about this series is your involvement all along the way
and tonight is no different.
We're going to have our phone lines open and you can call us, 202-585-3880, if you live in the
Eastern or Central time zones. 202-585-3881, if you live in the Mountain or Pacific or farther west.
You could also send us a tweet using the address @firstladies. And finally, you can join our Facebook
conversation, Facebook.com/CSPAN and you can see that there is a large picture of first lady Betty
Ford and a robust conversation already under way.
We said at the outset that her comments were often controversial. And Richard, it's interesting to see
to this day, she remains controversial. People are telling us on Facebook, "I loved her. I couldn't stand
her all along the way.” What made her so controversial?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, a number of things. First of all, she spoke her mind, and in part
the very fact that she would address subjects. I mean, quite frankly, there -- you can understand a lot
of the criticism of people who were accustomed to, for lack of a better word, more traditional
approach to the job.
First ladies were not overtly political. First ladies who did not wade into intensely debated moral
issues like abortion, for example. First ladies, certainly, did not discuss whether their children had
used marijuana or whether their daughter might have an affair.
Part of what was different was, for the first time, she was being asked questions that no one would
have put to a Pat Nixon or a Lady Bird Johnson. The difference is she was willing to respond.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Mary Rosinski) on Facebook said, "She -- Mrs. Ford was an inspiration; perfect
for the times". And one of the things that we have been following all along this series this year is the
changing role of woman in society.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah, yeah.
SUSAN SWAIN: And how the first lady in the office often is a benchmark for that.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes. And I think that's where I think she connected with millions of
women. You know, she was candid about her personal struggles. She was -- a lot of people didn't
realize when she became First Lady that she had been married before. I think Bonnie Angelo, retired
magazine correspondent, asked her about that and why people didn't know about it. Well, she said,
no one didn't bothered to ask her before.
In 1957, I remember the first time her name ever appeared in The Washington Post and it was about
her fashion sensibility. And it talked about her taste for quiet hats and slightly more talkative suits.
Now in 1957, that was fine. That was one culture. A lot of people looked at Betty Ford, this Cub
Scout den mother, this Sunday school teacher from West Michigan and they labeled her. They wrote
her off, in effect.
And then, they discovered, "No, actually, this is a woman with views of her own. This is a woman
who has had a lot of challenges in her life and a lot of those challenges bonded her with millions of
other women who entertain similar doubts and uncertainties as she did."
SUSAN SWAIN: Well you reference her first marriage. Let's go back in time and learn, where she
came from and what her roots were and what influenced her? Where was she born and when?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: She was born actually in Chicago. Her parents are a fascinating
contrast. Her mother clearly is the dominating, defining figure in her life. Hortense Bloomer, who I've
often thought it was a character straight out of Tennessee Williams. She came from a very prosperous
family, status meant a lot to Mrs. Bloomer. She insisted, for example, that Betty wear white gloves
when she went shopping. She was a perfectionist, to end all perfectionists.
Betty as a child was prone to overeat at least as far as Hortense was concerned, who responded by
hanging a sign over her daughter's neck saying, "Please, don't feed this child.”
Exactly. I mean, Hortense was a formidable figure. Her father -- talk about patterns, her father was a
traveling salesman and an alcoholic who died amidst mysterious circumstances when she was 16.
And it was one of those deaths that was never quite fully discussed. In fact, it was only then that Betty
learned that her father was an alcoholic and that those trips that her mother had made from time to
time to be with him on the road were a consequence of his illness.
It was a house where secrets flourished. She had two brothers, one of whom was an alcoholic. So in
many ways, she was genetically or culturally programmed for the disease that she would have later
on.
But Hortense Bloomer is a larger-than-life figure. She was president of the hospital in Grand Rapids
for crippled children. She wanted Betty to join the junior league at a very early age and kind of rise up
the ladder. She had problems with a daughter who had a mind of her own, who, for example, wanted
to pursue heaven (inaudible) a career as a Martha Graham dancer.
SUSAN SWAIN: And in fact she did. She went to New York and studied dance and was accepted
into the Martha Graham troupe, which was quite an accomplishment.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah, she did. She went -- she spent a couple of years in Bennington,
Vermont, associated with the program there. And then she joined the Martha Graham Company. She
never made the first ranks. And she was -- you know, she very modest in the later years. But it is a
key to her personality. She was a natural performer. She was perfectly comfortable being on the stage.
And in some way, that came back to her to aid her when she became First Lady.
SUSAN SWAIN: And she came back to Grand Rapids and can you briefly tell us about her first
marriage and what happened to it?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: She came back to Grand Rapids, she taught dance. She worked as a
fashion coordinator at a local department store. And she's -- by her own acknowledgement was a
party girl who met a party boy. Actually, she'd known him since I think she was 12 years old. Bill
Warren who, as I said, was himself was a traveling salesman and an alcoholic and they were married.
She was, I think, 24. And she had almost overnight kind of embraced a whole different set of values.
She was ready to settle down, and be a wife and have children. And that was not necessarily the same
agenda that he had.
The interesting thing is she made the decision after about three years to divorce him. And then he
went into a diabetic coma, and she spent the next two years nursing him back to health. And then -and then, she filed for a divorce. `
SUSAN SWAIN: 1947. So altogether, five years.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Five years.
SUSAN SWAIN: Well, I want to get...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: She called it her five- year misunderstanding.
SUSAN SWAIN: ... I want to get to the story of how she met and married Gerald Ford. But let me
take a call and then we'll come -- learn more about how that match was made.
First up is (Susan) who is watching us from Corpus Christi, Texas. Hi (Susan), you're on the air as we
discuss Betty Ford.
QUESTION: I just wanted to say I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. It's been wonderful.
SUSAN SWAIN: Thank you. And I love -- I love the way this is being done, I just love it. And my
question is, did Betty Ford support her husband Gerald Ford when he wanted to run for the
presidency, you know, he became president by, I guess, just being the Vice President. But when he
wanted to run for President, did she support him in this?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah. Good question. She supported him very vigorously, both of
the Fords, It's interesting, people forget now, President Ford, right at the beginning of his presidency
had sort of, more or less, let it be known that he would not be a candidate in 1976. And I think Henry
Kissinger helped persuade him that that would really undermine his presidency from the outset make
him a lame duck.
But I think more to the point, both Fords decided, they kind of like life in the White House. For Mrs.
Ford, it was a great improvement. You know her husband as House Minority Leader, was on the road
200, 250 nights a year. She actually spent much more time with him once they were in the White
House.
So, they were both determined to do their best to extend the Ford presidency, and I think for him
particularly to have the mandate of a popular election as the only appointed president, almost a
president with an asterisk next to his name.
SUSAN SWAIN: Well, she may have supported his bid for the White House, but when they first
met, she didn't know she was getting a politician, isn't that true?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: That's what she says. You know, it's hard for me to believe that she
was as totally naive. I mean, Jerry Ford was, you know, kind of a big man on campus, you know, a
local hero from his high school days playing football. It's not terribly surprising that he should decide
to go into public life. But there is no doubt, she was surprised. They were married in October 19...
SUSAN SWAIN: Forty eight. And here's (Regina Crumpky) on Twitter. Want to get her question
because she asked about that. "Did the Fords schedule their 1948 wedding for October 15th after the
Republican congressional primary and why?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes. I think the simple answer is yes. You have to know West
Michigan to appreciate. West Michigan then, well, considerably more than now, was a very culturally
conservative place. A place where the Dutch reformed church, held (sway). And Ford, who was
certainly always a fiscal conservative, nevertheless was running against an entrenched Republican
incumbent, kind of a mossback isolationist who opposed the Marshall Plan. Ford was one of those
World War II returning veterans who had seen the consequences of American isolationism, and went
into the politics really with an idea which was that America would have to play on a continuing role,
a significant leadership role -- anyway, and the world.
Mrs. Ford was a divorcee and the concern was -- he told her when he proposed, he wanted to get
married. But he, in effect, couldn't tell her when and he couldn't tell her why he couldn't tell her. But
the fact of the matter is, his political advisers were very concerned that West Michigan, he was
already facing an uphill campaign that having a divorcee in the family might add -- might lengthen
those odds even more.
So, but October 15th, you're right, it's about three weeks before the election. He showed up late.
Actually, he showed up at the rehearsal dinner late -- showed up in time for dessert at the rehearsal
dinner. He was late for the wedding. He showed up in brown shoes and a dark suit. The shoes were
muddy because he's been out campaigning.
Their honeymoon, glamorous honeymoon, consisted of an overnight in Owosso, Michigan. Sitting
outdoors listening to Thomas E. Dewey, the favorite son of Owosso. And then a football game in Ann
Arbor, his beloved university in Michigan.
She stayed in the hotel in Ann Arbor, he went to the game, they went back to Grand Rapids on
Monday. And he said he had to campaign that evening, could she make him a sandwich. He said, I -a number of times he said later on, she'd never let him hear the end of it. I think they took a number of
second honeymoons to compensate.
SUSAN SWAIN: I think there are a lot of women around the country thinking, the same thing.
(LAUGHTER)
SUSAN SWAIN: I owe her one big, after that. They were born in 1948, children followed soon
thereafter. Michael in 1950, Jack born in 1952, Steven born in 1956 and Susan born in 1957.
We're going to return to Steve Ford talking about their congressional years because, in fact, the
politician won that raise for the house of representatives and was spend to spend the next 25 years as
a member of Congress. Let's hear Steve Ford talking about that life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE FORD: You know dad was on the road, 150 nights, maybe 200 nights a year sometimes out
campaigning for other Republicans trying to get a majority in Congress. He want to be speaker of the
House. And mom, to her credit, was the one, like many wives of congressmen back home, making
sure we got to the dentist. Making sure we got our homework done. Making sure we got to football
practice, wrestling practice, and all those kind of things. And the glue that held the kids together
while dad was out, you know, public servant. And so, you know, it was later in the presidency that
she finally had a chance to, I would say blossom or shine you know and get her chance in the
spotlight.
But during dad's 26 years of being a congressman, she was the one that kept the family, you know,
drove the family. And it's interesting because, you know, in every family, there'd be some blow up
and one of us would get in trouble and we got in trouble a lot and you know it'd always be, wait till
your father gets home. And we knew that by the time dad got home, you know, the storm's gone and
it blew over. And he wanted to come home and be the good guy anyway, and he'd bring you a present
or something like that.
So my heart really went out to mom because she was the one that had to keep the whole ship pointed
in the right direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: We are going to take a call but keeping the ship together also starts on another very
important chapter of her life. So let's listen to (Michael) from Atlanta. And you are on the air,
(Michael). Go ahead.
QUESTION: Hello. Thank you. My question is what opinion or influence did Mrs. Ford have in
President Ford -- his decision to pardon Richard Nixon?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: That is a great question. And it is a one of the sort of elusive areas.
She said very little about the pardon. She thought it was necessary. She thought it was an act of
courage. She said what you would expect her to say in her first memoir. I will say this, I do know,
toward the end of his life and I'm sure CSPAN viewers may recall, when the John F. Kennedy Library
chose to give him the Profiles in Courage Award specifically for the Nixon pardon, he was initially
reluctant to go.
To go all the way across the country at, you know, his age, at you know, his age, and I mean, he didn't
see, in effect, the emotional significance of this. And it was Mrs. Ford who I think convinced him,
"Jerry this is the greatest honor that's been bestowed on you since leaving office. And he said after
that, for 20 years everywhere he went people asked him about the pardon. And after the Profiles in
Courage Award, people stopped asking.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Robert) is in Chicago. You're on the air. Hi, (Robert).
QUESTION: Hi. Thank you very much for your time. I understand two presidents, Kennedy and
Hoover, never received an income as president. Did Mrs. Ford received any kind of income after
President Ford had passed away? Thank you.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: First of all, you're right about Hoover and JFK, in fact, rejecting
federal salaries as president. In Hoover's case, he never accepted payment for any of his various
positions whether Secretary of Commerce or the Hoover commissions, whatever.
The question about whether Mrs. Ford...
SUSAN SWAIN: Did she get a widow's pension, more or less, as I understood it? Do you get
compensation if your husband dies and he served as president?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: No, I don't believe you do. I don't think so.
SUSAN SWAIN: So back to the amount of time, we heard Steve Ford...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: She had -- no. No, in terms of payment or pension, no. The - there's
an office, of course. The president's office remained in operation and she had the franking privilege.
SUSAN SWAIN: Which -- what's a franking privilege?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: The franking - very good. You're -- the franking privilege is just
basically free postage. And of course, there were secret service protection...
SUSAN SWAIN: And did...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: ...until the end of her life.
SUSAN SWAIN: And did the public pay for that office?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: So there were benefits, not salary.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Absolutely.
SUSAN SWAIN: So back to their days in Congress, Steve Ford talked about his dad being on the
road 200 -- sometimes 250 days a year. That's a lot of time. What were his aspirations? Was this all
for himself?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, you have to remember, yes. In 1963, there was kind of a youth
movement among Republicans, who were really tired of being in the minority. And there was kind of
an uprising and Ford was catapulted into, I believe it was the number-three position in the leadership
at that time.
Then, of course in '64 came the Goldwater debacle. And at the beginning of '65, Ford's hat was
thrown in the ring to become House Republican Leader. He ran against a man name Charlie Halleck
who had himself staged an uprising against Joseph Martin, his predecessor.
And this was not ideological, it was generational. It was the young (Turks). And you know the people
who ran Ford's campaign, that the two people who were most instrumental in his victory by three
votes over Charlie Halleck, one was a young Congressman from, Illinois named Donald Rumsfeld
and the other was a Congressman from Kansas named Bob Dole.
But what that election really signified was, the Republican Party was moving -- the center of gravity
of the Republican Party was moving away from the old eastern establishment. At that point, it was in
the mid-west. But they were already beginning to be a significant number of Republicans in the south
in both houses of Congress. A trend that would, of course, accelerate. And you know, 40 years later,
you could argue that the mid-western party has become a largely southern and western party.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Allegheny Tableaux) on Twitter asks this question, "Besides her familiar
predisposition, did her drinking -- and excuse me, did her being alone to raise the kids contribute to
her drinking?"
I'm going to let Betty Ford's own words answer that question. She wrote two memoirs. One of them,
"Betty: A Glad Awakening" was the later of the two. Is that correct?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: And here's some of what she writes. "I hated feeling crippled, so I took more pills.
Now I know that some of the pain I was trying to wipe out was emotional. Jerry became minority
leader of the House, but I was beginning to feel sorry for myself. It was poor me, he gets all the
headlines and applause, but what about me?"
She goes on to write, "In 1965, about a year after I began mixing pain medication with alcohol, I
snapped. I packed my bag one afternoon and decided to drive to the beach, take Susan with me and let
my whole ungrateful family worry about where I was and whether I was ever coming home."
So her -- and...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: And remember, 1965, that's the year her husband has become House
Republican leader.
SUSAN SWAIN: So over the years between his first election to Congress and their vice presidential
pick, talk about her drug and alcohol use and what she has written about it and what people should
know about how big a problem that had become.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think it became a real problem in the 60s. She -- first of all, there
were a number of contributing factors. There was actually a physical -- you know, she had developed
arthritis. She was in - and she had a pinched nerve, which may or may not have been the result of
reaching up to raise up a window. Whatever it was, she had a pinched nerve that was excruciatingly
painful. And I think it became easy, frankly. She had pills prescribed for her and the pills made her
feel better and the alcohol made her feel better still.
One of the things that you realize is that, as we went through this oral history project that I just
mentioned, although we weren't particularly looking for this information, people volunteered. Talk
about a cultural change, it's really remarkable how much more people drank, how routinely people
drank to excess in Washington, 40 years ago.
And the argument can be made, it may have lubricated a somewhat more civil culture, but obviously,
it had some serious consequences too.
SUSAN SWAIN: So, from the job of House minority leader -- excuse me -- how was he Richard
Nixon's pick to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice President?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, he had been actually considered in 1968 as a possible Nixon
running mate. Again, he didn't -- he wasn't interested in the Executive Branch. He loved Congress and
he wanted very much to be a first Republican speaker in a very, very long time. That was his goal.
In 1973, arguably, the annus horribilis for Richard Nixon and the Nixon presidency. While Watergate
is unfolding, the -- it becomes apparent that Vice President Spiro Agnew is also under investigation
for unrelated offenses; many of them stemming from his time as governor of Maryland. Make a long
story short, he resigns the office in October of 1973 and the 25th amendment, which has never been
applied until now, is applied.
Richard Nixon has to find a vice president, but critically, he needs to find a vice president, who can
be confirmed. And in the political climate of that time, there were very few people. If he had left to
his druthers, he would have picked John Connelly. But Connelly, a former Democrat-turnedRepublican could not have been confirmed. Neither could Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon.
And in the end, basically, the Democrats on the Hill, Mike Mansfield and Carl Albert, the speaker and
majority leader told the White House, "Look, if you want someone who can be confirmed easily, pick
Jerry Ford." And that's what the President did.
SUSAN SWAIN: Their time as Vice Presidential couple was very short. It -- December of 1973 until
that day in August 1974 when President Nixon resigned and they moved to the White House. Much
of that time was consumed - the country was consumed with the unfolding Watergate scandal. So it
was a time in which the Fords didn't do much and the Vice President?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, he hit the road very shrewdly. I mean, he got out of town.
SUSAN SWAIN: And what did she do? She was back at the house in Alexandria?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: She was back at the house in Alexandria but she had for the first time
now --- she said she realized for the first time in her life, she had to be on time. That was a life-long
issue. She was not the most punctual of people. There are those who think that it was a passiveaggressive. It was one of the few things in their marriage that she could control.
But in any event, all that changed once she became the Vice President's wife. She also had -- she had
causes that she was involved with. She had been involved, from an early age, with disabled children.
The Washington Children's Hospital was something she was involved with. But in addition to that,
she also had a Vice Presidential residence that had never been occupied before that had to be
decorated.
SUSAN SWAIN: And they never got to it.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Two days -- what was it -- a few days before Richard Nixon
resigned, the Vice President agreed to accompany his wife to the house that he, by then, knew they
were never going to live in because if he didn't, the press would have sensed that we're in the end
game. And you know, he didn't want to give that away. So...
SUSAN SWAIN: And he finally said to her, just a short time after, "Betty, we're never going to
make it to that Vice Presidential house.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: That night. Somehow, they went to a dinner party and they kept all
of this. He had been -- August 1st, he had been told by General Haig, the White House chief of staff,
about what became known as the smoking-gun tape. And it was pretty clear what the consequences
that would be. And after midnight that night he said, "Betty we're never going to live in that house".
SUSAN SWAIN: Let's listen to (Robert) in Leesburg, Florida for our next question. Hi, (Robert).
You're on.
QUESTION: Hello. Enjoying everything. Betty Ford wrote wonderful autobiographies. And are they
in print? And secondly, I can't commend him too strongly. Could Professor Smith address these?
Thank you.
SUSAN SWAIN: We'll show them both on screen. The first was "Betty Ford: The Times of My
Life", which were -- was co-written with Chris Chase and the second was the one we showed earlier,
"Betty: A Glad Awakening.” We had a little bit trouble finding them in print. Are they still available?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You know, I think "A Glad Awakening" is, I don't think the first
volume is. And sadly, Chris Chase, who worked on both of those volumes, sadly passed away within
the last month.
SUSAN SWAIN: Which is the better of the two?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Oh gosh. "A Glad Awakening" is a very candid, sometimes almost
painfully candid. But it's much more Mrs. Ford. There's also this wonderful, wry sense of humor, and
you can experience her rebirth.
SUSAN SWAIN: In print.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: In print.
SUSAN SWAIN: We're going to listen to Betty Ford herself next, just one month after they were
sworn in as the first couple, as the President was sworn in and they became the first couple. They -she held a news conference at the White House. We're going to listen to one question that was asked
of her and her response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALE: How would you like to be remembered? For what?
BETTY FORD: Well, I'd like to be remembered very -- in a very kind way.
(LAUGHTER)
BETTY FORD: Also, as a constructive wife of a president. I don't expect to come anywhere near
living up to those first ladies who have gone before me. They've all done a great job and I admire a
great deal and it's only my ambition to come close to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I never forget. One day out of the blue we were talking and she said
to me -- I don't even know what prompted it, but she said, "You know, I don't know why everyone
thought it was a bad thing that I admired Eleanor Roosevelt.”
Turns out Eleanor Roosevelt was one of her heroes, and I think it wasn't just public accomplishments
of Mrs. Roosevelt's life or even her life in the White House as it was the private challenges that
Eleanor Roosevelt had confronted along the way in becoming Eleanor Roosevelt. But it was -clearly, she was a role model. And I also think Lady Bird Johnson was a -- well, first of all she was a
very good friend but I also think she was very much a role model for Mrs. Ford.
SUSAN SWAIN: The Ford presidency was just 865 days but this was a tumultuous time in our
country's history. We chose a few events to -- as some of the hallmark events of the Ford years
beginning with the pardon of Richard Nixon. In 1976, the nation celebrated its bicentennial. There
were two assassination attempts in Gerald Ford's life during his time in office.
Rising inflation was a hallmark of his years in office. And the Vietnam War ended with the fall of
Saigon. And you will remember the scenes of those helicopters leaving the American Embassy as the
city fell. So a very -- continuing lots of history unfolding.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: History accelerated in those 2-1/2 years. And by no means, all of it,
of course, pleasant.
SUSAN SWAIN: On a personal front, just a couple of months after they came into office the -- Mrs.
Ford discovered she had breast cancer.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes. This was, you know, in some ways this was the -- the moment,
the indelible moment that she, I think, first impressed herself on the American people or maybe the
whole Ford family. It is really hard, 40 years later, to conceive of the degree to which people didn't
talk about this disease. I mean, euphemisms were employed. Even, in obituaries, you know, people
didn't die of breast cancer. They died of a wasting illness. And what Mrs. Ford did was to bring this
out in the open and overnight transform the way women, in particular, looked at this disease.
For her, it was also a lesson. I mean, she had -- it was her first maybe and most important lesson in
the influence that a First Lady could have just by being herself, by shining the light on a dark corner,
by educating the public.
SUSAN SWAIN: Next up we'll listen to President Ford himself announcing the results of her
surgery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALD FORD: I just returned from the hospital where I saw Betty as she came from the operating
room. Dr. Lukash has assured me that she came through the operation all right.
(APPLAUSE)
GERALD FORD: It's been a difficult 36 hours. Our faith will sustain us and Betty would expect me
to be here.
BETTY FORD: In a few weeks, I will complete my chemotherapy treatments, and that will be
another milestone for me. Since that first year, I have not talked much about the difference of my
experience with cancer. But at that time, my mastectomy and the discussion about it, I was really
pleased to see it because it prompted a large number of women to go and get checkups in their local
communities.
It made my recuperation easier because I knew that I was helping others. I make this progress report
to help cheer up those who have just had an operation for cancer and to encourage them to keep up
their good spirit. Part of the battle against cancer is to fight the fear that accompanies the disease.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: And of course, famously, one of those women, who was inspired by
her example, was Happy Rockefeller, the wife of the Vice President, who, two weeks after Mrs.
Ford's surgery, was diagnosed herself with the disease and who went on to have surgery of her own.
SUSAN SWAIN: When you see President Ford making the announcement, you can see his lips
quivering, that this is ...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Oh yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: ... that this is terribly emotional for the whole family?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: He said - Yes. He said that night when he went home alone to the
White House, the night before that was the loneliest night of his life.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Gary Robinson) on Twitter wants to know, "What was the result of her candor?
Was there anything else beside what you suggested, that more people got checkups? Anything else
that changed about the way we treat breast cancer in this country as a result of her going public?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think it initiated what had been missing. It initiated a national
conversation, a conversation among women, a conversation between women and their doctors. I
mean, when it comes to women's health issues, literally, history is divided into two periods. There's
before Betty and after Betty.
SUSAN SWAIN: And we have a photograph of the Fords in her hospital room looking at the cart
with all the get-well wishes from across the country, as she begins her recuperation. Next up is
(James) who's watching in Keyport, New Jersey. Hi, (James). You're on.
QUESTION: Hello. Let me congratulate you on a wonderful series. I've been watching since Mrs.
Jackson.
SUSAN SWAIN: Thank you.
QUESTION: And it is wonderful. I was wondering, President Ford was a member of the Warren
Commission and I was wondering what Mrs. Ford thought of his involvement on that commission
and the results and the controversies that have since occurred about the commission results.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: That's a great question. You know I'm sorry to say, I wish I had had.
But I never had a conversation with her. I never heard her discuss it.
He felt, you know, very strongly that -- relative to -- he was once trapped on an airplane. I shouldn't
tell this but I will. He was on an airplane and, of course, the movie was Oliver Stone's, JFK. And he
was not happy. He -- you know, artistic license is one thing, but he really worried that young people,
who were not alive that, you know, at the time of the assassination, would see this and conclude that,
it in fact was history.
He also -- it was interesting, he -- we had a number of conversations about the Warren Commission.
He and his fellow congressional members -- remember, Dick Russell was on a Hale Boggs, was on -anyway, the Members of Congress who were on that commission, were very careful in the language
that they chose. They rewrote, as I understand it, the staff's initial report to say, "We have found no
evidence of a conspiracy," which is a little bit different in a subtle way from saying flat out, "There
was no conspiracy."
SUSAN SWAIN: While we're speaking of assassinations, we mentioned that Gerald Ford had two
attempts on his life within very short order. Is he the only president to have or had assassination
attempts or successful assassinations carried out by women?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Oh, that's a good question.
SUSAN SWAIN: I can't think of any.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah. I think -- yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
SUSAN SWAIN: The first was Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme and ...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: And again, it's a classic instance of the Times. You know, "Squeaky"
Fromme who was a member of the Manson family -- take it for what it's worth -- and Sarah Jane
Moore who was a Bay-area housewife, on the fringes of radical politics. I mean, only in the 70's who
would either of those characters have emerged at a public notice.
SUSAN SWAIN: And what about the Ford family's reaction to these assassination attempts and how
did the President take it? Or did the security increase? Where they greatly concerned about his life?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think the Secret Service really did change things thereafter. I mean,
for a while he sporadically wore, for example, a bullet-proof vest.
The day of the Sacramento, the "Squeaky" Fromme incident, he was there, among other things, to
meet with Governor Jerry Brown, who is still Governor Jerry Brown today.
And the remarkable thing -- and this is so typical of Gerald Ford -- you know, he went in and he had
his meeting with Governor Brown and he never mentioned what had happened outside and he said
later on he thought it would really be kind of ungracious, you know, to tell the Governor, "Well, you
know, some lady tried to shoot me in your front yard.”
SUSAN SWAIN: And there we have a photograph of him being escorted by the Secret Service
agents away from the scene. But, of course, it couldn't happen today. With Twitter, with all of the
instant news, he couldn't have kept it from the sitting governor as he did then.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: That is true but it's also very unlikely that he would be out strolling
through the grounds of the state capital, as they decided -- really, on the spur of the moment -- that
morning in September 1975.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Tim) is in Denver. Hi, (Tim). What's your question?
QUESTION: Hi. You have a very good show. I saw Betty Ford campaign for this President in
October 1976 before the (inaudible) and someone asked, "Who are you for?" And, of course, Betty
Ford said, "May the best team win.”
But my question is, I heard the relations between the Fords and Reagans were kind of frosty, is that
true? Thank you.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, you know what it's interesting, I -- let me answer that this way.
Certainly in 1976 -- and when they were rather frosty -- you know, they were running a very intense,
very close, really uncertain battle for the Republican nomination. I think, quite frankly the Ford White
House underestimated Ronald Reagan and they almost paid the ultimate price for doing so.
But in fact in later years -- remember, crazy as it sounds -- you know, in 1980 President Reagan you
know very seriously thought about having Gerald Ford on his ticket as his running mate. And I also
know that in the 90's -- particularly after -- well, after President Reagan wrote his letter to the
American people revealing his Alzheimer's -- I know President Ford visited him more than once after
that. And whatever old animosities there may have been were long, long since evaporated and of
course even more so with Jimmy Carter.
SUSAN SWAIN: We're going to talk about her interest in issues. And (Noreen O'Gara) asked us on
Twitter, "How political was Betty Ford in her own right? Was she simply a supporter of her husband's
beliefs and values?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You know, that's -- it's a good question because, publicly, she was
arguably the most political First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. She was sort of the most outspoken
advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment. She publicly disagreed with her husband during the
presidency on the Roe v. Wade case, which she famously discussed on the "60 Minutes" interview
and other venues.
So, she was a very much an independent force. And initially, that terrified people in the White House.
After the "60 Minutes" interview, the President said -- he says jokingly, "You've lost me 10 -- no, 20
million votes.”
It was only a few days later when the first polls came in and the people in the White House were
astonished that, in fact, there was an overwhelming 70 percent of those who were polled sympathized
with the First Lady's candor, if not necessarily her specific views.
SUSAN SWAIN: Here's the First Lady herself talking about the Equal Rights Amendment to the
constitution and urging its ratification.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY FORD: The Equal Rights Amendment, when ratified, will not be an instant solution to
women's problems. It will not alter the fabric of the constitution or force women away from their
family. It will help knock down those restrictions that have locked women in to the old stereotypes of
behavior and opportunity. It will help and open -- help open up more options for women. But it is
only a beginning. The debate over ERA has become too emotional because of the fears of some -both men and women -- about the changes already taking place in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: But in the Republican Party itself, this party that had had Barry Goldwater and the
early '60s and there was the split that was developing in the party, how did the Republicans feel about
Betty Ford's public statement on these and abortion rights issues and the like? Was it going over well
within the base?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well that's -- there's no doubt she was a polarizing figure. When I
said 70 percent voiced approval, that meant 30 percent disapproved. And you can be sure that that 30
percent was disproportionately the Republican base, certainly conservative Republicans,
traditionalists, if you will.
So, she -- there was a legitimate debate. It's interesting, I would recommend the readers -- I met a
John Robert Greene as -- who wrote a book on the Ford presidency as part of the University of
Kansas series also did a book on Mrs. Ford. It's a very well researched and really a great read. And he
makes the case probably stronger than I would that she was, on balance, detrimental to her husband's
reelection prospects, particularly within the Republican Party but not exclusively within the
Republican Party.
SUSAN SWAIN: You've a couple of times mentioned the 60 Minutes interview. How significant
was her sitting down with the most popular news and public affairs program to the public's view of
her and the party's view of her?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think it defined her for millions and millions of people, who really - first of all, it was the first time they'd seen her in that kind of setting. But I also think for millions of
-- remember how Americans were accustomed to seeing their first ladies on television. We had seen
Mrs. Kennedy's unforgettable White House tour, but it was a very orchestrated presentation.
People were not accustomed to a First Lady being asked or answering, as I say, the kinds of
questions. Her view was, look, people are talking about these around their dinner tables all over
America. Why shouldn't the first family have the same privilege?
SUSAN SWAIN: And they covered issues such as divorce, use of marijuana, her daughter's dating
and sex before marriage. Things of those nature.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Absolutely. But she also talked about, you know, her use of pillow
talk to get a woman in the Cabinet. She was - she also mentioned, she was working on getting a
woman on the Supreme Court. John Paul Stevens, it's safe to say, would probably not have been her
first choice but then she wasn't doing the choosing.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Denise is in Tampa, Florida). Hi, (Denise). You're on the air.
QUESTION: Oh, thank you very much. I just love this show. Thank you.
SUSAN SWAIN: Thank you.
QUESTION: I've read somewhere that Mrs. Ford was older than Mr. President Ford. And I'm
wondering if that was true?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: No. Actually, he was five years her senior.
SUSAN SWAIN: And our -- we've talked all along the way in this series about the use of the White
House for entertaining, but that entertaining has a political purpose. To start that, we're going to go
back to or go to the Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, where the curator there shows us a bit of her
elements of style and how she approached that aspect of her job. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD HOLLOWAY, CURATOR, FORD PRESIDENTIAL MUSEUM: Hand in hand with
Mrs. Ford's love for dance was her love for design, for fashion, as well. And particularly, she wanted
to promote American fashion. These are some of her dresses and gowns from her First Lady's period.
This is a gown that she wore to her first head of state event -- King Hussein of Jordan. It was
designed by a lady named Frankie Welch, who had a boutique in Alexandria, Virginia. This also -next one also is a Frankie Welch dress and this she wore -- Mrs. Ford wore for her official portrait as
First Lady. This is a dress that -- next one that some people might recognize. It's by Luis Estevez.
And she wore this gown for a portrait that was taken of the family and featured on the cover of Time
magazine.
But she also loved very practical design as well. And Albert Capraro, a fellow from New York, he
designed a number of dresses and gowns for her, very practical, very inexpensive but, for her, very
functional. She would wear these outfits, both of which are Albert Capraro pieces to arrival
ceremonies for dignitaries, but also to the hairdresser, to church, on trips, for campaign events. They
were the ones she could get most comfortable in.
This is the piece that she wore for the "60 Minutes" interview. And so, she faced Morley Safer while
wearing these dress, as he -- she fielded his many questions.
We know a lot of this because one of the things that Mrs. Ford was careful about, as organized as she
was, was she kept, what we call secretary's card for each of these dresses. And there would be
notations made on where she wore them, when she wore them. And you can see that, for many of
them, she wore them multiple times. Some of this is in the handwriting of her secretary, some of this
is in her handwriting herself and many of this extend beyond the First Lady's period -- and to the -her post first ladyship period.
She would wear this into the early 1980s. And her love for design, her promotion of American
fashion led to in 1976 her receiving the prestigious Parson's School of Design Award. And this is the
accolade she received for her promotion of American designers in fashion.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: We have -- you have a comment?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, I've got -- she loved clothes. And people forget, you know,
she'd been a model in her early days. One of the way she supported herself in New York was as a
professional model.
SUSAN SWAIN: Oh, back to Twitter. Here's a question from (Lizzy G), who wants to know, "How
did Betty Ford balanced being First Lady and being a mother?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You know, she said -- it's funny, for people who -- one reason why I
said I thought that Lady Bird Johnson was a role model because Mrs. Johnson is exhibit A in exactly
how to do that.
Mrs. Ford said, she thought that, being a good housewife and mother was a much tougher job than
going to the office and getting paid for it.” So, she was both a traditionalist and a trail blazer. And as
we've already said, she not only balanced the job but, of course, before they were in the White House,
she was, in a sense, mother and father.
SUSAN SWAIN: During that very brief presidency, they hosted 33 state visits.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Oh yes, well because -- the reason it was so concentrated was, of
course, it was the Bicentennial year. So 1976, in addition to being this very hotly contested, you
know, Republican race for the nomination and then, of course, the fall campaign, it played out against
the backdrop of the American Bicentennial. And she loved entertaining. This is why I think when
Steve talked about her blossoming, this is what he meant.
You know, I said earlier, this was a woman who was accustomed to being on the stage. Well, as First
Lady, she was back on the stage. She really enjoyed the entertaining part of the job. The
entertainments were really personalized.
President Sadat of Egypt, for example, was a great fan of the American West. And so, she rounded up
original Remington sculptures to decorate every table in the dining room. The guests -- Pearl Bailey
became not only a great favorite as an entertainer, but they refer to each other as sister. They became
very, very great close friends.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Goff) is in Marietta, Georgia. And you're up next. Hi, (Goff).
QUESTION: Hi. My question is, how did she feel when Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter and when
did she establish the Betty Ford Center?
SUSAN SWAIN: OK, (Goff), you sound like you're one of our younger viewers, which we've had
every week. How old are you?
QUESTION: I'm eight.
SUSAN SWAIN: Eight years old. And why are you watching our program tonight?
QUESTION: Because of my family is very interested in presidents and first ladies.
SUSAN SWAIN: And are you interested too?
QUESTION: Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: And do you have a favorite President or favorite First Lady?
QUESTION: My favorite President is Abraham Lincoln and my favorite First Lady is Michelle
Obama.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: And where do you live?
QUESTION: Marietta, Georgia.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Have you ever been to Warm Springs, Georgia?
QUESTION: Yes.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Oh, OK.
SUSAN SWAIN: How about that at eight?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I'm impressed.
SUSAN SWAIN: Well (Goff), thank you so much for your call. It was about the 76th campaign.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You know, of course, she felt badly. There are people who still
remember, you know he lost his voice at the end of the -- at the very end of the campaign. And so, it
was left to the First Lady. This is another first, I think, to read the concession statement and the
telegram of congratulations that had been sent to President-elect Carter.
At the same time, you know, she wouldn't miss life in politics. He had promised her, long before
Watergate, that they were going to retire in 1976. Once he concluded that he was never going to be
speaker of the house, she had exacted a promise that after 1976, they would leave Washington, go
back to Grand Rapids, he would practice law. Even if they had no money, and make a little bit of
money for the kids, and so on and so on. And, of course, intervening events played havoc with that.
And in the end -- but they still left Washington, they just went to a different destination.
SUSAN SWAIN: So earlier, we talked about her struggles with alcohol and pills when he was in the
House of Representatives. Here's what she wrote about this during the White House years.
"The neck problem got worse, so my pills were always with me. Still, I did not drink alcoholically in
the White House. There was too much at stake. What little drinking we did was confined to Camp
David on a weekend or drinks upstairs before we went to bed."
Now, she said, "The pills were always with me.” How big a problem was this for her during her
White House years?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: You know, I don't know how to answer that. There is anecdotal
evidence to suggest -- she's what I call a circumstantial alcoholic -- if there is such a thing. And as far
as the pills are concerned, you mentioned 33 state dinners. She was in all of them, and by all
accounts, a very vital hostess.
So, I'm not sure -- the problem really erupted when they left Washington. I mean there was a
significant problem before the presidency. And it was a -- almost lethal problem after the presidency.
But ironically, those 2-1/2 years in the White House I think was -- it was much less of a problem than
(we read).
SUSAN SWAIN: Well speaking of state dinners, the Fords welcomed Queen Elizabeth, as we said,
during the Bicentennial. And we're going to go back to the Ford Museum and learn more about that
visit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD HOLLOWAY: On August 9, 1974, Vice President Ford was sworn in as President of the
United States. This is the dress that Mrs. Ford was wearing at the swearing-in ceremony in the East
Room of the White House. She was less than excited about becoming First Lady but President Ford
encouraged her, saying we can do this. She resolved that if I'm going to have to do this, I'm going to
have fun doing it. And the fun for her started almost immediately. Within 10 days, she had a state
dinner to entertain King Hussein of Jordan. And it was something that she had to prepare for as her
role as First Lady, and she hit the ground running.
While she was First Lady, she had a number of opportunities to entertain because President Ford's
administration overlapped the Bicentennial. Some of the most coveted events act of White House
were held during that year and people wanted these invitations, wanted to receive these invitations.
So, this one is for the May 17, 1976 event when they entertained Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President
of France. But there were a number of notable people who came to the White House and among them,
Emperor Hirohito of Japan. This is a letter received from him in appreciation for hosting him in 1975.
The first time an Emperor had ever left Japan.
But here are some of the invitations, dinner menus, from probably the biggest event and that is when
we hosted Queen Elizabeth in July of 1976. This is the gift that the Queen of England presented to
President and Mrs. Ford and to the people of the United States. It's a gilded and enameled soup
tureen. On its face, is a hand painted image of the White House. And it was the official gift of Great
Britain to the United States, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the United States.
And she wrote a nice letter back to the Fords thanking them for their hospitality and for the friendship
that they extended to the Queen and to the people of England. And in this letter, the Queen writes to
the President and Mrs. Ford, It was the greatest pleasure for us to visit the United States and to be
able to join in the Bicentennial celebrations. And she signs it, We send our warm good wishes to you
and Mrs. Ford, your sincere friend. Elizabeth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: We have a couple of questions that followed from that, so let me ask them.
(Norma Steelburman) on Facebook. "The cherry trees and pandas have been mentioned as foreign
gifts for an Asian in past episodes. Please comment on any other significant gifts that are still in the
White House and how the rules have developed over history about gifts being given to the nation that
were -- what were considered personal gifts. Also, what gifts have first ladies and we'll say, in this
case, the Fords, typically, they've been to foreign dignitaries during their trips of the White House?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Oh, gosh. Well, you know, I'm not sure exactly when the law
changed that made all gifts, in effect, federal property. I know if you go to the Woodrow Wilson
House here in Washington for example. You can see all sorts of gorgeous things that President
Wilson was given on his European travels toward the end of his presidency. I think it begins with the
Kennedy presidency.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Regina Crumpky) on Twitter asked, "Did Betty start any White House
traditions?" You're thinking hard there.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I know. You know, it's interesting, she broke the mold more than she
started traditions. In some ways I think we've regressed in terms of what we expect a First Lady to
address. What issues, what controversies and the like. So, no, I would - that's a tradition she didn't
start.
SUSAN SWAIN: Would this be -- would that be your answer to (Sheldon Cooper) on Twitter who
asked, "How did the Ford White House differ from previous administrations?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, it differed in a number of ways. And in -- some of them are
purely social. For example, she restored the round tables at dinner. She thought it was much more
informal and led to conversation. One of the things that she did, she did not, for example, do a lot of
decorating. But she did remove the -- there was a -- there is on the second floor a private family
dining room and Mrs. Kennedy had located some spectacular and historically invaluable French
wallpaper describing -- portraying the American revolution in very graphic military term.
And Mrs. Ford who had the utmost respect for Mrs. Kennedy's taste nevertheless said, I just -- I can't
sit there and watch these people shooting each other on battlefields. And so she had the paper
removed. I think Rosalynn Carter actually had it put back.
SUSAN SWAIN: Before we leave the White House here, so (Elizabeth Anvonmot) said they lived in
Vail, Colorado for a while.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah.
SUSAN SWAIN: The places associated with the Ford family: Alexandria, Virginia; Washington,
DC.; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Vail, Colorado and Palm Springs, California.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: That's right and in fact at the time the President passed away, when
we we're planning his funeral, there were a number of personal touches and one was, when they -there was no caisson. No horse, you know, drawn procession through the streets of Washington.
Instead, the hearse drove through their own neighborhoods in Alexandria, where large crowds turned
out. And, of course, they stopped at the World War II Memorial to recognize his service in the war.
SUSAN SWAIN: 1976 the Bicentennial and also a very hotly contested presidential election.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah,
SUSAN SWAIN: The campaign included a slogan vote for Betty's husband. How was Betty Ford
used during the 1976 campaign?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, there's some controversy about that. There's a debate about
that. There are people who think that she was misused, overused, that she was a rather fragile, delicate
figure.
She was certainly very active in the primary campaign in the Ford- Reagan race. There are people
who remember that the convention sort of a dueling candidate's wives, the entrance of Mrs. Reagan to
the convention hall. The entrance of Mrs. Ford who, by the way, was -- had the great good fortune in
her mind to be introduced by Cary Grant, which is, you know, pretty impressive.
In the Fall campaign, again, there's a school of thought that she wasn't used as well as she might have
been.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Dan) is watching us in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Hi, (Dan).
QUESTION: Hi. Appreciate the time and I was just going to say that the museum in Grand Rapids,
I've been there a couple of times and it's a great place to visit and enjoy. And I'm, you know, glad I've
gone there. And I'm just curious, their post-White House years, how much time did they spend in
Grand Rapids and where did they go after they left the White House (ended) up in California?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Good question. They had been out to the area around Palm Springs
in the past. They had vacationed out there. And the weather was perfect for her -- for her health. Her
arthritis, which was a significant issue in addition to her other health problems. So, you know, they
decided - they changed their plans which originally envisioned going back to Grand Rapids.
The president came back to Grand Rapids very often. I know because I was director at the library for
six years. And he would come back -- gosh, we started it -- every year at Christmas time he would
come back and turn on the Christmas tree. He would come back. We did a series for the 25th
anniversary of his inauguration, where we had John Paul Stevens and Alan Greenspan. And he would
fly from California. He would come back just to introduce those people. He felt so honored that they
would make that effort.
Mrs. Ford came less frequently. They had a running gag, they divided the country in half for fund
raising purposes. He had America East of the Mississippi. She had the United States West of the
Mississippi.
SUSAN SWAIN: (AJ) is in Alexandria, Virginia. One of the homes to the Ford family. Hi, (AJ). I
have to push the button. Hi, (AJ).
QUESTION: Yes. I'm curious if there is a specific reason why the First Lady invited King Hussein
for the first dinner she hosted at the White House?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, that --- you know, it's interesting. She -- the President became
president on August 9. On August 10th she was informed, almost matter of factly by the way, you do
know that King Hussein is coming in a week's time. So, she had nothing to do. This was something
that had been arranged during the Nixon administration. And she, literally, within her first 24 hours,
was kind of, you know, thrown in sink or swim, to organize a state dinner for the King of Jordan.
SUSAN SWAIN: The 1976 campaign, there was the big challenge in the party from Ronald Reagan
as Richard Norton Smith suggested. A lot of work during the primary when President Ford had the
nomination, a hard-fought campaign against Jimmy Carter, the Governor of Georgia. And by the time
election night came and the Fords had lost, President Ford had lost his speech. He asked the First
Lady to give his concession speech. We'll watch a little bit of that now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY FORD: The President asked me to tell you that he telephoned President elect Carter a short
time ago and congratulated him on his victory. The President also wants to thank all of those
thousands of people who worked so hard on his behalf and the millions who supported him with their
votes. It's been the great honor of my husband's life to have served his fellow Americans during two
of the most difficult years in our history.
The president urges all Americans to join him in giving your united support to President-elect Carter
as he prepares to assume his new responsibilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: Lots of pain on the people's faces, in that as they always are
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: It's tough.
SUSAN SWAIN: ... on those concessions speeches.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah. It was tough. But remember that they've come from so far
behind. And I think, I mean every candidate believes they're going to win but -- but you know, he'd
never lost an election. And you could see the -- well, the look on the kids face.
SUSAN SWAIN: So, he went into history as the only person in American history to serve both as
Vice President and President of the United States without ever having faced the public and won the
electoral vote. It wasn't very much longer after that that the intervention as we've talked about with
the family members occurred.
We're going to listen to Steve Ford tell the story of that intervention as the family realized the extent
of Betty Ford's problem with alcohol and with drugs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE FORD: You know I think we sensed something during the presidency because she had
legitimate pain from several pinched nerves and she was getting medication for that. And what we
didn't know is that the combination of, you know, alcohol and those pain medications produce that
cocktail that, at times, took away some of her sharpness and those kind of things.
But eventually it had to play out. I mean, it had to get to the other side of the presidency where I think
it created a time for mom after the presidency where she wasn't First Lady anymore, she was out in
California and dad was traveling again a lot. They were building a new home, the kids were -- we're
all gone and slowly over months and months and months, she developed a melancholy and it
eventually turned into a depression and pulled back from life. You know, started canceling
appointments and not showing up. Sleeping in late, slurred speech. All those things but it - that takes
months and we didn't know what we're looking at. I mean we're like millions of other families that,
what's wrong with mom? There was not the education about alcoholism and drug dependency that
there is now. So it took time. Dad, searched through several doctors before he finally found a doctor
that would maybe have the courage to say, I think your wife's an alcoholic.
I mean, that was just not the image anybody accepted. Finally found the right doctor, dad -- excuse
me -- had the courage to say, we're going to do this intervention. The whole family went in. We did
the intervention with mom. And you know at that time, I'd never heard of the word intervention, now
you got TV shows about it.
So it was a different time. We did it. Dad led that intervention and you know, my memory of that is
very clear. He -- we walked in the door that morning and all the kids and dad surprised mom and he
took her hand and said, Betty we're here because we love you. You know, the kids want their mother
back, I want my wife back.
And those interventions were tough. I mean that is tough, hard, hard, hard work. A lot of tears. A lot
of crying. A lot of raised voices. A lot of hugs and then more raised voices and denial and not denial.
I mean, it goes back and forth. It's a tug of war and dad just never gave up. He kept holding her hands
and said, Betty we love you, trust us. And we woke her up, she did the work.
BETTY FORD: As many of you probably know, 16 years ago, the state where I participated in a
treatment program for prescription drugs and alcohol dependence. Today I am a very grateful
recovering alcoholic. And I know firsthand that treatment does work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: We see her talking about her successful treatment. We have to see her command of
speechmaking, versus the other clips we've shown is...
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yeah.
SUSAN SWAIN: ... is markedly different.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: Well, once she became sober.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes. Well, no, that's true. One thing that might surprise people
particularly seeing this very confident commanding figure from 1994, till the end of her life, she had
butterflies before she went on stage. Which is why I also am very curious. She was terrified. And a
part of that is the perfectionism that I think was bred in her by her mother. You know one thing we
don't talk about is - we talked about a genetic disposition to alcohol.
There was in ways, I think, an emotional disposition as well. You know, she writes particularly in the
"A Glad Awakening", about the emptiness and the low self-esteem. You know, she was very sensitive
about the fact she didn't have a college degree, for example. And I think, again, at a time when earlier in her life her husband was - his career was taking off. By the time they came back to Southern
California, he was out on the road and -- look at that - he was out on the road, almost as often as he
had been before, and now the kids were gone. And so that emptiness, in effect, became everything.
And it was easier for her to slip back into the old habits.
SUSAN SWAIN: We should just tell you that what you just heard was Richard Norton Smith's cell
phone going off here, that was the sound.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: From a technological illiterate.
(LAUGHTER)
SUSAN SWAIN: So, we have a lot to cover in a very short time. So, would you -- would tell us of
how her treatment at a facility in California led to the creation of the Betty Ford Center?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes. She -- after the intervention in April of 1978, she was checked
into Long Beach Hospital. And you know, it shouldn't be sentimentalized or romanticized, it was a
very gritty, very demanding, somewhat risky period. She didn't want to be there. She made it very
clear, for example, that she didn't want to share a room with, you know, three other patients.
Her self-image -- she reads the statement that said that she was there because she was over-medicated,
which was true, but far from the whole truth, and they had to push her and push her to, in effect,
reveal a full truth that she had an alcohol problem. She was detoxified there and that was not pleasant.
But within a week, she was toasting the future in fruit juice. And well, it was the beginning of a whole
new life in a lot of ways.
Her neighbor in Rancho Mirage was a man named Leonard Firestone, a successful businessman. He'd
been ambassador to Belgium, he was an alcoholic as well. And about a year after her successful
intervention, the Fords and their friends staged one with the Firestones. To make a long story short,
Leonard Firestone and Betty Ford decided together to go to the Eisenhower Medical Center with the
idea for what became the Betty Ford Center.
SUSAN SWAIN: And it was co-founded in 1982. How long did she serve as its chair?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Until -- I want to say 2005.
SUSAN SWAIN: So -- she was -- or late 80s.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Really. Yes.
SUSAN SWAIN: And with an active Chairperson raising money for that?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Very active, very hands-on. She said her friends hated to see her
coming because they knew she was going to put the touch on them for fundraising. She was a
phenomenally successful fundraiser.
SUSAN SWAIN: Do you have any sense about how many people have been successfully to -- or
have been treated?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I don't know, thousands. I don't know. And I'll tell you, they used to
have -- every year they would have an alumni and may still, I don't know -- they have an alumni
event. And the President was so proud of her. At the alumni event, you could find her sort of holding
court and he was cooking hotdogs, for the alumni. He also said that about 10 years ago that when the
history books were written, her contribution to America would be considered greater than his own.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Susie's) in Eugene, Oregon. Hi, (Susie. You're on.
(Susie), you there? All right. We're going to move on, (Samuel) is in Ashburn, Virginia. Hi.
QUESTION: Hi. Hi, Professor Smith. This is (Samuel). I've really enjoyed being in your -- a student
in your classes this semester at George Mason University. I've really enjoyed your class a lot.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Thank you.
QUESTION: It's great to see you on television.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Thanks.
QUESTION: Professor, last week in class you talked about how the -- President Ford and President
Carter became friends in 1981 on the way to Anwar Sadat's funeral on the plane. I wanted to ask -you didn't talk about how Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter became friends. I wanted to know how that
event transpired.
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I'm glad you asked because, just as this unlikely friendship
developed between the two former presidents, likewise Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Carter, they discovered
they had a whole lot in common. They teamed up, for example, to become a pretty formidable
lobbying pair, they would testify before Congress for funding, for example, for mental health
programs, which, of course, had been a special interest of Mrs. Carter's and for the work that Mrs.
Ford was doing on alcohol and drug dependency issues.
SUSAN SWAIN: (Kyle Goulage) wants to know, "What kind of relationship did the Fords have with
the Nixons after leaving Washington?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: I think, perfectly friendly. I think, to be perfectly honest with you,
you couldn't go through Watergate and the pardon and have it not affect the kind of old casual
friendship that they had enjoyed. But I remember seeing them together at the time that the Nixon
library was dedicated in 1990.
SUSAN SWAIN: Gerald Ford post presidency, very active in corporate boards, very active in party
politics. He lived until the age of?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Ninety three. He is the longest-lived American President to this date
SUSAN SWAIN: We have some video of his funeral -- his casket in state in the Capitol building.
Can you talk about -- there's Mrs. Ford there -- can you talk about her role in planning that funeral
service?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well, she was a very much a part of it. She -- we would -- we had a
number of meetings that began actually several years out and of course involved the military district
of Washington, who were the professionals at this. And said the one thing he was adamant, he did not
want a horse-drawn caisson through the streets of Washington. And she kept saying, "Keep it simple.
Keep it simple and think of the kids." Because to her, this was only partly a national or public event.
This was first and foremost a family event.
SUSAN SWAIN: And there you see the family together. (Jeff Bucard), wants to know, "Did any of
the four children ever entertain political careers themselves?"
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Well I know Jack was very interested for a while. He gave serious
thought to running for office, but I don't think any of the others have.
SUSAN SWAIN: How long after her husband died, did Betty Ford herself die, and how did she die?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: She died on July 8th, 2008, which is about 4-1/2 years, and she died
of being 93.
SUSAN SWAIN: We have a photograph of their grave sites. Can you tell us about this site and what
their design was for it?
RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Yes. This was something that was always, in effect, `built into the
plan. The Ford Museum is located on the banks of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids. And
from the beginning, it was planned as, of course, is the case with many recent presidents that they
would be in interred turned at the site of their libraries or museums. Very simple design, as you can
see, built into the hillside there. It's a really pretty spot and they chose the words themselves.
I will tell you very quickly, right after the president passed in December of 2005, yes, Mrs. Ford had
the house in Rancho Mirage. There were olive trees out front. And for Christmas, they'd put white
lights in the trees and she left them on that year past the Christmas season. And someone asked her
why. She went on every night, she turned on the lights, said, that's how Gerry knew she was okay.
SUSAN SWAIN: Both of them living to 93 years old, of course the five years separated them in age,
so she was a widow for five -- the last five years of her life.
We always close this program by asking our guest about the legacy of the woman that we're profiling.
But tonight we're going to put it in the words of another president.
In 1999, Gerald and Betty Ford received the Congressional Gold Medal. And at that ceremony,
President Bill Clinton spoke about Betty Ford's legacy and her work with helping people with alcohol
and drug addiction after she left the White House and we'll close with that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON: Perhaps no First Lady in our history, with the possible exception of Eleanor
Roosevelt, has touched so many of us in such a personal way. Because I lost my mother to breast
cancer, Betty Ford is a heroine to me. Because my family has been victimized by alcoholism and I
know what it's like to see good, fine people stare into the abyss of their own personal despair, I will
be forever grateful for the Betty Ford Clinic and for the millions of other people, whose lives have
literally been turned around and often saved, may not have gone to that clinic but went somewhere
because she showed them it was not wrong for a good person and a strong person to be imperfect and
ask for help. You gave us a gift and we thank you.
`
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SWAIN: And next Monday on First Ladies, Rosalynn Carter, a highly involved First Lady.
She attended cabinet meetings. Had working lunches with the President and traveled to Latin America
as his official envoy.
She also worked on her own causes, supporting the ERA and overhauling mental health policy. The
first time Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter ever saw the inside of the White House was after he'd been
elected president.
We'll hear from Rosalynn Carter in her own words. She spoke with C-SPAN recently in Atlanta,
Georgia about the 1976 campaign, her causes and her political partnership with Jimmy Carter,
negative press coverage and the Iranian hostage crisis, as well as her work after the White House.
That's First Ladies on the Life and Times of Rosalynn Carter, next Monday, live at 9 p.m., Eastern on
C-SPAN and C-SPAN 3, as well as C-SPAN radio.
And we're offering a special edition of the book, "First Ladies of the United States of America",
presenting a biography and a portrait of each First Lady and comments from noted historians on the
role of first ladies throughout history. It's available for the discounted price of $12.95 plus shipping at
C-SPAN.org/products.
And our website has more about the First Ladies, including a special section, Welcome to the White
House, produced by our partner, The White House Historical Association. It chronicles life in the
Executive mansion during the tenure of each of the first ladies. You can find out more at CSPAN.org/firstladies.
END