Former first lady of US Betty Ford dies aged 93
Source: Agencies |
July 10, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BETTY Ford, the wife of the late United States president Gerald Ford, who overcame alcohol and prescription drug addictions and helped found a rehabilitation clinic that bears her name, died in Los Angeles on Friday at the age of 93.
"I was deeply saddened this afternoon when I heard of Betty Ford's death," another former first lady, Nancy Reagan, said in a statement confirming Ford's death.
Ford once was dubbed the "fighting first lady" by Time magazine because of her outspoken political views, which often differed from those of her husband's Republican Party. Ford was an early campaigner against breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy in 1974, less than two months after her husband succeeded Richard Nixon as president.
Her frank discussions about her disease helped raise awareness about breast cancer and she eventually took the same approach toward her alcoholism, which she battled even as first lady. Ford's problems with chemical dependency may have begun in 1964, when doctors prescribed her painkillers for a pinched nerve. The Betty Ford Center in California came into being in 1982 after Ford was treated for her addictions at the US Naval Hospital at Long Beach.
Born April 8, 1918, in Chicago, Elizabeth Bloomer was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She studied in New York before returning to Grand Rapids and marrying a furniture salesman. They divorced after five years and she married Ford in 1948.
In her later years, she slipped from the public eye but returned when her husband of 58 years died in 2006.
"I was deeply saddened this afternoon when I heard of Betty Ford's death," another former first lady, Nancy Reagan, said in a statement confirming Ford's death.
Ford once was dubbed the "fighting first lady" by Time magazine because of her outspoken political views, which often differed from those of her husband's Republican Party. Ford was an early campaigner against breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy in 1974, less than two months after her husband succeeded Richard Nixon as president.
Her frank discussions about her disease helped raise awareness about breast cancer and she eventually took the same approach toward her alcoholism, which she battled even as first lady. Ford's problems with chemical dependency may have begun in 1964, when doctors prescribed her painkillers for a pinched nerve. The Betty Ford Center in California came into being in 1982 after Ford was treated for her addictions at the US Naval Hospital at Long Beach.
Born April 8, 1918, in Chicago, Elizabeth Bloomer was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She studied in New York before returning to Grand Rapids and marrying a furniture salesman. They divorced after five years and she married Ford in 1948.
In her later years, she slipped from the public eye but returned when her husband of 58 years died in 2006.
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