BETTY FORD FUNERAL-OVERHEAD SHOT INSIDE CHURCH IN MICHIGAN

BETTY FORD FUNERAL-OVERHEAD SHOT INSIDE Grace Episcopal Church Grand Rapids Michigan Betty Ford died, age 93, of natural causes on July 8, 2011, in Rancho Mirage. Funeral services were held in Palm Desert, California, on July 12, 2011, with over 800 people in attendance, including former president George W. Bush, First Lady Michelle Obama and former first ladies Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Rosalynn Carter, Cokie Roberts and Geoffrey Roberts, a member of the Board of the Betty Ford Center delivered eulogies. On July 13, her casket was flown to Grand Rapids where it lay in repose at the Gerald Ford Museum overnight. On July 14, a second service was held at Grace Episcopal Church with euologies given by Lynn Cheney, former Ford Museum director Richard Norton Smith and son, Steven. In attendance were former president Bill Clinton, former vice-president Dick Cheney and former first lady Barbara Bush. In her remarks, Mrs. Cheney noted that July 14 would have been Gerald Ford's 98th birthday. After the service, she was buried next to her husband on the museum grounds. Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (April 8, 1918 Ð July 8, 2011) better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford. As First Lady, she was active in social policy and created precedents as a politically active presidential wife. She also raised awareness of addiction when she announced her long-running battle with alcoholism in the 1970s.