Long after Jerry and Betty Ford settled into a comfortable retirement out West, the former First Lady was asked why her husband kept smacking his head on helicopter doors and tripping down stairs during their White House years.
A motor-skill problem, perhaps? It was odd, after all, because he was a gifted athlete and a superb skier.
?Oh, no,? she replied with an impish laugh, ?Jerry?s just clumsy.?
That was classic Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Ford ? funny, quick and unflinchingly honest, even at the expense of a husband she adored for 58 years.
But she was more than just the ballast of the Ford family, the classic politician?s wife, who raised four children while her congressman-husband spent hundreds of days a year campaigning for fellow GOPers to further his desire to become Speaker of the House.
When he instead became President in 1974, Betty took advantage of the spotlight she?d always shunned. In an era when the personal lives of First Ladies were mostly off-limits, she forthrightly went public with her medical and emotional demons, sharing her struggles with breast cancer, alcohol and painkillers.
In the process, she encouraged countless Americans to believe they could conquer or at least cope with their own afflictions. She changed lives, and no doubt saved many.
Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/nydnrss/news/politics/~3/g4_P6UoqoQk/story01.htm
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