 I'm Michael Barr. I'm the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. And it's my distinct pleasure and honor to welcome you here today for this wonderful discussion. I'm delighted to see so many Michigan alumni and friends in the audience. Happy homecoming. I'm sorry that the weather is looking a little bit iffy now and for tomorrow. But it is still Fallen Ann Arbor. And the home team is favored to win by two touchdowns. We'll see how that goes. But the University of Michigan established the forerunner of the school that we're in today in 1914. So more than 100 years ago in the progressive era. And it was the first of its kind in the country and has really been a model ever since. As you know Gerald Ford, captain of the Michigan football team here in the 1930s, went on to raise a family of four with Mrs. Betty Ford and to spend his life in principal public service in Congress and eventually in the White House. When Michigan named our public policy school for President Ford in 1999, so nearly 20 years ago, the pride flowed strongly in both directions between the University and the Ford family. The family has visited here many times and students and faculty here have come to talk often about what we call the Ford legacy, that is leadership grounded in service. A commitment to hard work and getting the facts right. And having the courage and wisdom as leaders to do what is right, no matter what the personal cost. We're gathered here in one of our larger spaces for classes and events, the Betty Ford classroom aptly named, known informally and with affection by our students simply as the Betty. I hope you got a chance to see some of the wonderful photos of Mrs. Ford in the vestibule. They capture at least some part of the strength and joy and love with which she lived her life. I'm honored to introduce today's featured guests here to tell us more about Mrs. Ford's life and legacy. I'll start with a host for our conversation, Mr. Mike Ford. Mike is the eldest son of former President Gerald R. and Betty Ford. Mike and his wife Gail have three daughters and eight grandchildren. He currently chairs the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and has served on the Ford Schools Visiting Committee for many, many years. Mike is a BA from Wake Forest and a Master's in Divinity. And for the last 36 years, he has built a long and successful career in student affairs, serving in multiple leadership roles at Wake Forest. As he retired earlier this year, Wake Forest presented Mike with a medallion of merit award in honor of his many years of service to the school and its students. Commenting on that award, one of Mike's colleagues, University Chaplain Tim Aumann, said of Mike, he models for students, quote, what it means to be a person of integrity, to be a truth teller, to be a person who values service. Mike, thank you for your friendship to the Ford School and, of course, for being with us here today. And now our special guest, the highly successful award winning journalist, Lisa McCubbin. Ms. McCubbin has been a television news anchor and reporter, hosted her own radio show and spent six years in the Middle East as a freelance writer. She's written and co-written a number of books that have topped the New York Times bestseller list, including the Kennedy Detail, Mrs. Kennedy and Me, Five Days in November, and Five Presidents. Her latest book, released just two weeks ago, is titled Betty Ford, First Lady, Woman Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer. It's the first in-depth biography of Betty Ford. Reviewers have called the book, quote, a meticulously researched and delightful biography, and, quote, a warmly sympathetic biography of a spirited woman. Ms. McCubbin, we're so honored to have you here to share with us what you've learned about the woman who is in a very real way a guiding light for the entire Ford School and the University of Michigan community. And so with that, please join me in thanking our special guests. And I'm going to now turn it over to Mike to run the show. Thank you, Michael. Indeed, it is a great pleasure to be back at the University of Michigan and at the Ford School. This place is a very special kind of home for our family, our extended family, and we love coming back here to, for me, to see college campus students, you know, is in my DNA, you know, with my career in higher education. I love to be around college students and faculty and here at Michigan, the ways in which this university and the school has impacted our family is very meaningful. But last spring, we had this very special event hosted by the Ford School to honor my mother, Betty Ford, on her 100-year anniversary. It was in April and the school just rolled out this wonderful recognition of her life in this space and it was very, very special. And now we're continuing the discussion here with Lisa's biography on my mother and it's only appropriate that we're back again in my mother's 100th year on this wonderful book that Lisa's written and we're thrilled to have it out and Lisa is going to share a little more about my mom's life and we're going to have a little discussion. So take it away. Okay, so in writing this book, I have to tell a quick little story because when I was first approached with the idea to write a biography of Betty Ford, I didn't really know that much about her, to be honest. And so I knew I would devote two years of my life to this project and I had to be passionate about it. So I told my editor, I said, I need to just think about it. I need to research this a little bit. And I went for a long walk. I live in the San Francisco Bay area. And on this walk where I'd just been approached with this idea, I kid you not, I saw four people wearing University of Michigan sweatshirts. Yeah. And I took that as a sign. It became the first of many signs and I'm so glad I did. So I'm going to start off with a little bit about Betty's early life. She was born Elizabeth Ann Bloomer, April 8th, 1918. She was born in Chicago and then the family moved to Denver. And then she had two older brothers, Bill and Bob. And the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when Betty was about three years old, into this house at 717 Fountain Street. And this is where Betty said her memories began. She, her mother was named Tortence. Her father was William S. Bloomer and he was a traveling salesman. And he wasn't home a lot but every time he came home he would bring Betty a stuffed animal. So this is a picture of her with one of her favorite animals. And the family had a summer cottage at Whitefish Lake that they would go to and spend most of the summers. And when Betty was little, she would wander around from table to table, little picnic tables everywhere and the people thought she was so cute and she had this bubbly personality and they'd give her a cookie and a brownie and she started getting chubby. So her mother one day put a sign around her neck that said, please do not feed this child. So Betty was kind of a tomboy having two older brothers and she was very athletic. Her mother wanted to instill some femininity into her so she enrolled her in dance class. When she was eight years old, the Cala Travis School of Dancing and Grand Rapids and from the moment she started, Betty said dance was her happiness. She wanted to take every kind of dance there was. She started with ballroom dancing and then went on to ballet and tap and modern dance and she fell in love with modern dance and ended up going to the Bennington College School of Dance at a summer program in Stovermont and studying under Martha Graham who was the grandom of modern dance. When Betty was 20, she went to New York and actually danced in Martha Graham's troop. She didn't make the A team so to speak because Betty liked to socialize. Everybody I interviewed and Mike, I'm sure you can attest to this. Betty liked to have a good time. She always had a lot of boys wanting to go on dates with her and she just enjoyed that and Martha Graham said to her, Betty, if you really want to be a number one dancer, you're going to have to give up your social life. Well, Betty loved dance but she wasn't willing to give her whole life to that. So she ended up going back to Grand Rapids teaching dance and she also, to earn a living, she worked at Herpel Shimer's department store. She was a fashion coordinator there and she loved fashion. She was beautiful. She was a model for Herpel Shimer's and that's how she earned her living. So she also, when she went back to Grand Rapids, met a boy. She ended up marrying. His name was Bill Warren and she, and I think this was something that, I don't know, did you even know about this growing up that your mother had been married before? We did know about it but they didn't talk much about that. It was kind of the five-year flaws. Five-year misunderstanding. Yeah. But actually in reading your book, I learned a lot more about that and so it was good. So yeah, a lot of people didn't know that. So it turned out that, so Betty's father had been a traveling salesman and when she was 16, she came home one day and found that he had taken his own life. During the Great Depression, he had lost his job. She also found out at his funeral that he had been an alcoholic. She didn't know that because he traveled all the time. Turned out that she married a man, Bill Warren, who was just like her father. So she decided to divorce him, which in the 40s, this was a very big decision but she knew that she couldn't live the rest of her life like this. So she divorced him and she swore that she was never going to get married again. She's going to be an independent woman and that's when Jerry Ford showed up. Yes. And he swept her off her feet and he proposed very quickly but when he asked her to marry him, she said yes and he said we can't get married right away because there's something I have to do but I can't tell you what it is. Well, she trusted him so much and she said that's fine, whatever Jerry wants to do and she would come to find out that the thing he was going to do was he was going to run for Congress. Now, she didn't know what running for Congress meant but she thought if Jerry Ford wanted to do it, that was just fine and then once she learned a little bit more, she thought well, only old men with white hair go to Congress so Jerry's not going to end up going to Congress. Well, sure enough, he was running and they decided to get married but the reason he didn't want to get married too soon was he was afraid that because Betty had been divorced before, that could hurt his chances for election. This was in the 40s. So they did end up getting married on October 15th and there's a reason for that date, right Mike? Yeah, so October 15th, 1948 and that was, wait a minute, it was 47. Yeah, 47. They, it's a Friday and you know, had to get married on a Friday because Michigan was playing on Saturday. Yes. Yes. And sure enough, that was her honeymoon. She, they were married in Grace Church in Grand Rapids and had a big party and they jumped in the car and drove down to Ann Arbor for the big game and that's how their life started, yeah. So she knew right away what she was getting into, right? There was a lot of football in that house that was three boys to follow. So she thought she was marrying a lawyer from Grand Rapids. Well, now all of a sudden, she's married to a congressman and they moved to Washington, D.C. and Mike, well, Mike came along soon thereafter and growing up, you would often go down to Congress, to the Capitol with your dad and that was kind of like your playground. Right. So my father was all in with his career in the house and mom had the four children to try to manage and keep up with and she did a wonderful job with that. But on Saturdays, my dad went to the office but he always brought the boys down, you know, the three boys to give mom a break and this was a ritual where he'd take us to his office, he'd maybe get a haircut, he'd throw us in front of a desk and a computer, it was a typewriter there. And he'd say, now you, all of you, this is how you type, so we'd start learning how to hunt and pack but he says you need to write your mother a letter and tell her how much you love her and how special she is. And so he went off and did his work and we were typing those letters and then we'd finish that and then we'd run around the halls of the Capitol and we'd, you know, get lost and we literally got lost in the halls and we'd have to ask the policeman, you know, where's Jerry Ford's office so we could get us back but we'd go home and we'd have our letters and we'd give them to my mom and she opened each one and it was like the first time she'd ever read that and we probably did it, you know, 30 times. And it was like, oh, what a, you love me, that's wonderful. So that was their way of sharing the parenting and for us to, you know, kind of express our love to mom going up. And it got your dad some good brownie points with your mom too, I bet. Because he was gone a lot and your mother really was the one that was caring for all four of you kids as you grew up. And so what kind of mother was she? Well, she was very much a managing, you know, chief managing officer or whatever of the house. She kept the calendar. She, all of the doctor's appointments and the, you know, athletic events and she was Cub Scout, Den mother, Sunday school teacher and she was always kind of moving us from place to place, you know, as, you know, any dutiful loving mother would because my dad was away a lot. Now, when he was there, he was all there. He was fully, you know, engaged. Sundays were sacred for us as a family but mom was really going, hard charging and very much a manager of our lives. Yeah. And in her own memoir, she said she spent a lot of time in the emergency room with you boys particularly. Yeah, they kept saying, which one is it this time? So yeah, a very athletic family. So yeah, so that was Betty's life and she was very involved as a congressman's wife as well. She, when they were first married, she would go in and sit and watch what was going on because she wanted to learn what her husband's job was about so that when he came home in the evenings, she could talk to him intelligently about what he was doing and so she really took an interest in politics and all of that. So as the kids grew, so there were four children eventually, Mike, Jack, Steve and Susan and Betty started to feel at one point that, you know, there was just a lot going on and like many mothers then and now, what about me? You know, she had been a career woman and now she's giving, giving, giving to her family and she had, she had an incident in which she was reaching across the kitchen sink to open a window probably to yell at one of the boys in the backyard and she woke up the next day in excruciating pain, ended up in the hospital, right? Pinch nerve. A pinch nerve and the doctors prescribed pain medication, very strong pain medication and when she got out of the hospital, she was concerned that this might act up again. So she asked the doctor, what do I do if it acts up again? And he said, well, don't let that happen. Take your medication every four hours and that's what she did and she also went to see a psychiatrist for depression which she was very open about and the psychiatrist prescribed valium. So and none of the doctors mentioned that, you know, maybe having that vodka tonic at six o'clock with your husband while you're taking all these medications is not a good idea. Nobody ever said that and it wasn't known really back then. So this, this kind of started, this is just to let you see and how things developed. But, you know, as, as the, you, this was, this was just your normal family and you really didn't see anything abnormal about your mother. It wasn't something that we observed. I mean, everybody, you know, our lives were fairly crazy and, you know, it's four children and so it was sometimes survival just to get through all that. But we didn't really see any effect on her functioning at that time. Right. And I don't know, many of you, if you're from Michigan, you might notice where this picture is. Boyne Mountain was a favorite skiing spot for you all, right? Was and so, as Lisa said, my father and mother were both very athletic, you know, big football player from the University of Michigan. Mom was a, you know, a major professional dancer and so they, they kind of came to skiing, you know, later, you know, as they were adults, partly because of the, their attraction to winter sports, but also it was a social thing for them to kind of, some of their former boyfriends and girlfriends were skaters. So that got them. Anyway, they kept us engaged as kids and we'd go up to Boyne Mountain over between Christmas and New Year's and they'd throw us into the ski school in the morning so they could go ski and then in the afternoons we would all ski together as a family and it was, it was a wonderful time at Boyne Mountain until one winter, the snow wasn't too good in Michigan. So friends of mom and dad's said, well, you know, have you been out to Colorado? Yes. And so we took this trip to Vale, Colorado when it was nothing. I mean, it was, you know, one hotel and the mountains were a lot bigger and the snow was a lot more plentiful and, you know, God bless Boyne Mountain. We never... Once you went to Vale, so Vale became their second home really. They bought a condominium there and they would spend summers and Christmas there. So, and as you got older, your parents really wanted you kids to be involved with politics and current events, right? I mean, you had family discussions about what was going on. Yeah, so in the living room, but also actually more around our dinner table, we, when dad would come in, he'd always have his evening swim. If you, again, that was his therapy. We did build a swimming pool in our little backyard and he would kind of cleanse himself from, you know, the work on the hill and then come into the... We'd have dinner and around the table, he would... We'd talk about these different issues in society. I remember many heated discussions around the civil rights movement, around Vietnam, just our role as a nation in Vietnam and that transition and just many other things and that was, I think, a place where they first instilled in us this sense of civic duty and responsibility and curiosity. So, yeah, those are special times and it's been passed on, hopefully, to all of our children. And so during this time, your father is rising through the ranks in Congress and he becomes minority leader. And in 1973-ish, he told Betty, she was kind of getting tired of, you know, this whole Washington life. She had come for two, she thought it was a two-year term, you know, and now 20 years go by and he promised Betty that he was going to run one more time in 1974 and then he would announce his retirement in 1975 and Betty knew that Jerry's word was good as gold. And he was going to go back to practicing law and come back to Grand Rapids and kind of spend more time, you know, in Michigan but there was a different story there. Yeah, so in 1968, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew are elected and then overwhelmingly again in 1972 and history intervenes when Vice President Agnew resigns and all of a sudden Nixon has to nominate a vice president. Now, did you, you knew your dad was on the short list. There was a list of about 10 names that were circling around and you were away at college at this point. I was in graduate school, yeah. Okay, so did you really think your father was going to be named as vice president? Not at all. I was not on the, I did not think it was going to happen. My mother did not either. She was not feeling like that was in the future there. If you remember back then, the name that was being circulated was John Connolly from Texas. He was, you know, everyone's saying he's going to be the new vice president and lo and behold, Richard Nixon pivots and he chooses Gerald Ford from Michigan and it rocked our world. I'll tell you say that. So, yeah, so all of a sudden, and you know, there's, we go into depth in the book about this, about how this all happened and the phone call and everything and, you know, Betty is just overwhelmed because she really didn't expect this. And then in December of 1974, am I getting my years right, 73? Okay. Right, 73. He is confirmed as vice president and what does he do? He plants a big kiss on Betty right afterwards and you can see the speaker of the house looking like whoa, you know. But there are so many pictures of Jerry and Betty in these wonderful embraces and they really had a wonderful love story. But when this happened, your dad apparently said to your mother, don't worry, Betty. Vice presidents don't do anything anyway. Sure. Unless the president resides too. So, now where were you when you found out your dad was going to become president? Right, so this was in August of, you know, 74. Gail and I, my wife had just married July 5th, you know, a month earlier. Now, the backstory on that was we were supposed to be married in August, okay? And it was, you know, something everyone in the family was excited about and you know, she, you know, mom and dad were wanting to make it right and not, you know, make it too public. So, they actually came to us not knowing what was going to happen because, you know, the things with Watergate were just unfolding. Each day was a different revelation. And so, they actually suggested that we move our wedding up to July. Just to be safe, so we did. July 5th. We are going back to graduate school. She was at Boston University. I was at Gordon Connell Theological Seminary and driving up to, you know, we actually spoke to mom and dad and said, you know, hey, we've got to start school. What do you think? Should we stick around? No, go. So, we're driving up. This was in the day when there was no cell phones. And so, we are on the road with our, you know, U-Haul and we get up there, literally get up there. They've been looking for us because we get up there and there is a press corps at our house, our little apartment. There's our friends waiting for us and then we find out. I mean, literally find out that Nixon had resigned, was going to resign and that was going to change everything. So, we had to jump on a plane the next day to come to Washington for the swearing-in of my father. That was a big summer for the Ford family. Wedding. Dad becomes president. So, yeah, so this is August 9th, 1974 and your mother said in her memoir that this was the saddest day of her life. Why do you think that is? Why did she say that? I remember her saying that. I think for two reasons. At one level, she was very sad, as many of us were, to see a sitting president. Richard Nixon had to resign from office. This was a dark day for our nation for many reasons and that had never happened before. And I think at the other level for my mother, she was looking forward to dad retiring. He had promised. Yeah, he had promised. And she could kind of see a quieter, more intimate life. And she felt like this was just ramping it up to another level. Now the good news is that she came to realize that as First Lady, she was only a little few hundred yards from his office. So it was really wonderful to have him so close by. And so she actually saw him and he spent more time together in the White House than when he was moving around traveling, speaking in Congress. And so, yeah, so that day actually, you know, had to have been overwhelming and... You look a little different then, don't you? Yeah, right after the swearing in... Get all the hair. You go into the Oval Office and have this family portrait taken and then your dad goes to work, his first day of work, and the family goes back to their house in Alexandria because the Nixons had left so suddenly. There was no inauguration. There were no inaugural balls. The White House wasn't ready for you to move into. So the family goes back to the house while President Ford now has his first day in office. You're having a little party there with the neighbors. It's not every day your dad becomes president. So, and then your dad comes in later that evening and your Betty was pulling a lasagna out of the oven. And do you remember what she said? Yeah, she says, you know, you're president of the United States and I'm working in the kitchen. Something's wrong with this picture. There's something wrong here. I'm still cooking. So I don't think she really cooked much after that, did she? So they actually lived at their house at 514 Crownview Drive in Alexandria for the first 10 days of Gerald Ford's presidency, which I found astonishing. And you presumably went back to... Yeah, went back to our graduate school. But we're coming to visit often, yeah. So then seven weeks later, you get another sort of devastating, really devastating piece of news. Tell us a little about that. My mother had her annual checkup with her doctor and they discovered she had a lump in her breast. So this was a shocker that she had breast cancer and that they needed to do some immediate treatment. And, you know, back then that was, you know, kind of the early stages of breast cancer detection and treatment. I remember dad calling, we were up in Massachusetts and I never had heard him... I guess there were two times when I heard him emotional. One when his mother, Dorothy Ford, died. And the other time was when mom had this breast cancer and he told us and that she was going for treatment, maybe surgery. And the one thing I also remember is, and I'm not sure if this is in the book, but he wrote mom this beautiful love letter before she went into surgery. And it's really precious, you know, regardless of what happens, you know, you're my soulmate, you're my life mate. So it was really cool. And the way things were back then, I mean, this is 1974, I'm getting my dates all mixed up now, 74 and you couldn't say breast on television. When people had cancer it was whispered about. It was not something you talked publicly about. And when Betty went in, she would go under general anesthesia and they were going to do a biopsy. And if it was malignant, while she was under general anesthesia, they would remove her breast. So she went into the hospital A, not knowing if she had cancer and B, not knowing if she would wake up with her breast removed. So, you know, just completely different than the way it's done now. And she was adamant to go public with this, this very personal decision because she felt that other women were going through the same thing and they were terrified too. And that was very courageous thing to do. Yeah, spoke to who she was as being, you know, very, you know, forthright open and also wanting to help others who were facing similar crisis in their life, yeah. And so when she came out with this, women's healthcare literally changed overnight because women started lining up at doctors' offices, calling their doctors to get breast exams. There were pictures in the newspaper of how to do self-exams and all of a sudden research and funding started and that became a lifelong commitment of Betty's. So she realized at this point, now she's First Lady, she can make a difference. And one of the things she started talking about was the Equal Rights Amendment. Yeah, so mom was, you know, very outspoken about the role of women in society. And she now had a platform, I guess, as the First Lady. And, you know, this is when the feminist movement was just beginning. And, you know, she would not, maybe think of herself as a radical feminist, but she was a strong feminist and pretty radical for her day to go and champion, you know, equal rights for women, equal pay for equal work, equal education, social security, everything which would be hopefully captured through an Equal Rights Amendment. So she was campaigning for that publicly much to the concern of not so much my dad, but all of my dad's staff. They thought she was a little too vocal about this and, you know, the pushback and the public opinion wasn't going to be that great. And so she said what? Well, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld went to President Ford and said, could you ask Betty to tone it down? And your dad said to them, if you want her to tone it down, you go tell her. And neither one of them did. And they confirmed that story with me last year when I saw them. So a year after your mom became First Lady, she agreed to go on 60 minutes. And I'm going to play you a little clip of this. It really brings her to life and you'll see this spunky lady unafraid to answer all these questions. This is 1975. Yes. Well, Dick. Well, a year ago, this weekend, Jerry and Betty Ford found themselves in the unsolved position of President and First Lady. When we went to the White House to chat with Betty Ford, we expected to find, quite honestly, a rather bled and predictable political wife. We found instead an urban woman with a mind of her own prepared to talk about anything. No taboos. I told my husband, if we have to go to the White House, okay, I will go. But I'm going to ask myself and it's too late to change my pattern. And if they don't like it, then they'll just have to throw me out. She has spoken about abortion, which is kind of a taboo subject for the wife of the president. It's one of those things that... To ask the question, you have to be honest exactly how you feel. And I feel very strongly that it was the best thing in the world when the Supreme Court voted to legalize abortion. And in my words, bring it out of the backwoods and put it in the hospitals where it belonged. I thought it was a great, great decision. We've also talked about young people living together before they're married. Well, they are, aren't they? I'm not even there. Well, I would be surprised if somebody's a perfectly normal human being, like all young girls. If she wanted to continue, and I would certainly counsel and advise her on the subject. And I want to know pretty much about the young man that she was planning to have the affair with. Whether it was a worthwhile encounter or whether it was a rather normal... She's pretty young to start affairs. Do you think Betty Bluer would have been the kind of girl who would have the least experimented with marijuana? Oh, I'm sure I probably, when I was growing up at their age, I probably would have been interested to see what the effect... I never would have gone into it as a habit or anything like that. It's the type of thing that young people have to experience like your first beer or your first cigarette, something like that. I think everyone would be fascinated to know what is the issue that you were using to report down and say, listen, I want you to listen. Well, a lot of it had to do with the... Perhaps putting a woman in the cabinet... They won that one. Yes, they won that one, and I'm working on another. I think that's pretty perfect, and I think that they have accomplished a great deal. Isn't that great? Yeah, that's great. Go, Betty. What are you thinking when you watch that? Well, she's a woman ahead of her time. That's for sure. You know, when we saw that, it did kind of make us a little nervous because she was talking about the family, maybe a little more... Two more... A little too transparent about some things. But then again, it was refreshing. It was the woman that was our mother, and we knew her as someone who spoke her mind and was honest and really thinking about what is the best for all people. So I'm just glad she was able to be outspoken like this. Yeah, and we just love Betty. I'm going to go through these next ones a little bit quickly. She brought Dancing Back to the White House. White House parties were fun again, and Jerry and Betty were always the last ones to leave the dance floor. And then came the campaign of 1976, and she was actually more popular than your father in the polls at times. And unfortunately, Jerry Ford did not win that election, and he lost his voice at the end of the campaign, and your mother actually gave the concession speech. So I want to just move forward quickly to what happened next. It's a terrible time losing that election. But then your mom and dad stayed in the White House for a couple more months, and her last full day in the White House. There we are. Do you want to tell the story? Yeah, I'll tell the story. The photo is out here in the hallway too. Probably my favorite photo of my mother as First Lady. So this is the cabinet room in the West Wing. Very sacred, serious, presidential space. And she was with David Kinnerley, who was the White House photographer, and they were kind of finishing up the last day of occupancy in the White House and walked by there and she said to David, you know, I've always wanted to get on top of that table. And David, you've got to know David. David is a prankster himself. He said, Miss Ford, please do, go ahead, go for it. And so she took off her shoes and she went up and gave a dancer's pose on the cabinet table. And that was her final farewell to the White House. And then she did this pose as well. And that ended up being the cover of the Betty Ford book. So we want to make time for some questions from the audience. So, you know, the book chronicles Betty's whole life and obviously a big part of her life is what happened the following year and the family had a very painful intervention. And we describe that in the book and is it accurate as you remember it? Yeah, it's very well accounted for in the book. It was a very difficult, painful time for our family as would for any family facing an intervention for love one. We were somewhat, you know, in the dark about how serious my mom's illness was with alcohol and drug addiction. My sister was, you know, with out there in California and saw the changes in my mother and the deterioration and the rest of the boys we were spread out. But fortunately with some medical help, Susan and dad, you know, conferred and really talked through what can we do to basically save her life. And so they proposed this intervention by the family. And so we got the call and, you know, we were like, this is terrible and can we do this? But we jumped on the plane. All of us converged in Palm Springs. We had a time to talk through mom's illness with medical professionals and we talked about it and prayed about it as a family. And then we got some coaching on what an intervention does and in April 1st, 1978, we knocked on the door. Mom answered it and she was surprised to see Gail and I because we were, you know, in Pittsburgh at that time. And we all came in and had this very serious encounter but loving encounter. Basically the message was, you know, mom, we love you. We love you dearly. This is not your problem. This is our problem and we will together as a family get through this and she finally released her defenses and accepted that and went into detox and from there. So. And the rest is kind of history. She turned that around just like breast cancer. And in 1982, she co-founded the Betty Ford Center with Leonard Firestone and the Betty Ford Center has since served over 100,000 patients, saved countless lives. And the book also is a love story of your parents and it's, I hope you'll all get the book and learn so much more about Betty Ford and Mike, it's been such a pleasure to share this with you. And a final quote there, mom and dad. Didn't you have a final quote? A final quote. Well, yeah, there is one. Thank you for reminding me. We've talked about this before. Your father once said, when the final tally is taken, her contribution will be larger than mine. Do you agree with that? I understand where my father is coming from when he says that and I think of both my father, my mother and each in their own way, made enormous contributions to the health and well-being of many people in our nation. And I think for my mother, as Lisa does so well in the book and when she talks about Betty Ford as a trailblazer, as someone who's an advocate, someone who's a survivor, first lady, it embodies who she is because she was a woman ahead of her time who had tremendous vision and purpose for other women in particular in their health and well-being, their role in society, being elevated to an equal level. And then when she fought her own demons of alcohol and drug addiction, she came out and said, there are so many other people that need this help as well. Let's create this wonderful facility and be bringing other people through the treatment and the recovery like I have. And so in many ways, she's lived a significant life and legacy and their love story, I would just simply say they, where my mother gave so much and made so many sacrifices early in her life as the wife of a congressman, four kids, you know, just pretty insignificant role in society. And my dad was out there doing all these great things in reversed, in reversed after they went to the desert. And when my mother came to realize her illness and go through recovery, the first person that was there by her side to champion her efforts to get well, to create this beautiful Betty Ford Center to raise money was my dad. And he was second fiddle. She was the centerpiece and they shared 58 beautiful years together and impacted our lives and many others. So it was very special. So beautiful. Thank you. So anybody have any questions? Do we need microphones? Yes, there's a microphone. So wait till she brings the microphone to you and take this one right here. Thank you. Hi, Lisa. Hi, Mike. Thank you for being here. Lisa, knowing what you know about Betty Ford today, if you could talk to her today, what would you say to her? I think Betty and I would be really good girlfriends. I would say thank you. First of all, just thank you. And I just want to have fun with her because she just seemed like such a fun lady. Oh, over here. Let's go over here. Sure. I always wondered why Betty wore a blue dress for her wedding. Maybe it was a dark blue dress. I'm guessing that because she had been married before, that she never really talked about it. But I think because it was her second marriage, that that was, yeah. Yeah, that's why it was. And she designed it as well. Yes. Yes, here. Hi, Mike. This question is for you. How do you think your mother would react? Or what would she say about the Me Too movement and those things going on today? I was anticipating that question. She would be a champion for that movement. She I think understands that a woman's voice in back then in the 70s and even today in 2018 in terms of their voice in challenging some of the social expectations practices of today is not heard and needs to be expressed and that there's many victims in society that have pushed it down their experiences. Is there abuse or assault and needs to be listened to and respected and given, you know, given a, you know, some kind of recourse, you know, some kind of, so I think she would be a strong advocate for sexual abuse and assault victims, yeah. Any more questions? Do we have a microphone over here? This is more of a remandance. One of my favorite political events I ever saw on television was when the tribute was to former President Ford and Tip O'Neill, of course, has the Democratic Speaker of the House and Ford, when the House was the minority leader, they got along so well. Something is so lacking today. I mean, those guys really hit it off well and they were doing a tribute now to Betty Ford and part of this, too. And somebody was going to sing to Betty Ford and Tip O'Neill grabbed that microphone out of his hand and said, I'm going to sing to Betty Ford. And he sang beautifully when Irish eyes are smiling. Oh, wow. Thank you. That's wonderful. Can I put that in the book? I know. Gosh, I should have interviewed you for the book. Part two, the addendum of any other questions. I interviewed over 70 people for this book. People that were colleagues, friends, and, of course, all the family members. Yes, ma'am. This was a lovely, lovely discussion. I had a chance to hear Steve speak in Palm Springs on the week his dad became President and it was just as moving as this was. My question is this is such a phenomenal story, both their lives. Are you making a movie? From your lips to God's ears. We'll work on that one. Yes, over here. Mike, I'm proud to say I voted for your dad in 1976. I was an undergrad. I doubt your father could have elected sewer commissioner now on the Republican ticket. So what would your father say about what's happened to the extreme elements of the Republican, of all parties in the states, but particularly the Republican party? Okay, I thought we were talking about Betty Ford today. No, I would feel like my father would be very sad and disturbed by the evolution of the Republican party to a more extreme right perspective, the formal party. And I think he would be very concerned and disappointed in just the high intensive partisanship that is going on at all levels of government. And you know, as this gentleman over here said, my father, some of, you know, his very, very best friends were on the other side of the aisle and were Democrats. And they had tremendous respect in regard for each other, though they differed on political, sometimes philosophy and in policy, they were able to conduct civil conversations and respectful engagement and work out compromise too. So the government was working, you know, instead of stalemate. And so I know he would be very sad to kind of see where we are right now and hopefully we can, you know, with institutions like the Ford School of Public Policy, you know, bring change, positive change to that, so. And more women. And more women, yes. We have a couple of questions over here. Yes, sir. Do you have any idea if Betty Ford's mother had a similar sort of personality in terms of honesty and directness and speaking her mind? I did get that impression. Her mother died shortly after Jerry was elected the first time. So you never knew, you never knew her. But in Betty's own memoir, she talks about her mother and how, what a strong-willed woman she was. And then, and after Betty's father died, her mother had to go out and get a job. She worked as a real estate agent. So she had that role model in her life of a strong woman speaking up for herself and standing up for herself. Was there one over here? Yeah, I just had a question about the relationship between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and whether that carried over at all in terms of a relationship between the two couples or between the two women, Rosalind Carter also, in her own way, having been a very strong woman. Do you want to talk or do you want me to talk about that? Yeah, why don't you start? Because I was in the book some, and I can add to that. I actually interviewed Rosalind Carter for the book down in Georgia, and she and Betty formed this wonderful friendship and partnership later in the 80s because Rosalind Carter's cause was mental health issues. And as Betty was really championing for more insurance to cover treatment for alcohol and drug addiction, the two of them got together and they actually lobbied Congress to gather these two former first ladies whose husbands had been rivals. And what an example that set really was fabulous. Yeah, and as time passed after the election of 76, the relationship between my father and mother and the Carter's really warmed up and strengthened this excellent example around policy of mental health. But also they, my father and president, former president Carter also did a number of speaking in forums together around human rights. If you remember, my dad was one of his major accomplishments was the Helsinki Agreements in Europe, which really broke open the discussion and the kind of started that slippery slope of human rights among communist bloc nations. And Jimmy Carter carried human rights across the globe. And so they really came together with great respect and admiration and friendship. And even to the point that my father's funeral, Jimmy Carter was one of the eulogist for that. So again, bipartisan, you know, respect that is the strength of American democracy. So do we have any more questions? Okay. Thank you. I'm going to just come up for a second. Thank you. Thank you. This was really just a very moving and insightful and fabulous discussion between the two of you. And I'm really grateful for both of you being willing to do it here at the Ford School and in the Betty. We are going to have a reception after this. Everybody's welcome to join for that. Lisa and Michael have a little time to chat further at the reception. If you'd like a tour of the Ford School, we have Ford School students outside. We'll give you a tour of the Ford School. And I have a wonderful, wonderful homecoming weekend and go blue and and and the Betty Ford book is available for sale and we'll be happy to apologize for that. The Betty Ford book is available for sale and signing outside. Please, please enjoy. Thank you. Go blue. Go blue.