CNN is reporting that Betty Ford has died at the age of 93. Gerald Ford died in June 2009 December 2006, also at 93. Outspoken about women’s rights and breast cancer awareness, she was also inspirational for her personal struggle against substance abuse, which left a legacy in the form of the Betty Ford Center. Best wishes to the Ford family.
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The Elliptical Saloon 
Minor correction Dennis: Gerald Ford died December 26, 2006.
Betty Ford, was a First Lady like we’d never seen or heard before. She opened her life like a book to the world, and opened doors for others who felt they’d reached a dead end. She was outspoken and honest. It was through her courage during and after her victorious battle with cancer, and her subsequent battle with addictions, that we got to know the woman Betty Ford. President Ford said on a number of occasions that he felt her contributions to our country and the world would far outshine his own. She was a wife, a mother, and our First Lady and we have all been better for it. God bless.
Brava, Betty !!!
I stood in line in 1987 at a Crown Books D.C. to have Betty sign her new book. Last year at a used book sale I snagged her first book, The Times of My Life, in book of the month club sealed plastic-never opened in over thirty years. While her courage in meeting cancer and addiction are well known, her first book reveals her dislike of the ultra-formal Nixon rooms upstairs at the White House; she told Rosalynn Carter (Rosalynn’s memoir) that she would have brought upholstered sofas back to the Yellow Oval Room post 1976-if re-elected. The revised two volume The Presidents House by Seale documents her battles with Nixon curator Clem Conger, esp. re: the Queens Bedroom over museum formality vs. comfort.