Using Your Power Wisely...Betty Ford

"Lying in the hospital, thinking of all those women going for cancer checkups because of me, I'd come to recognize more clearly the power of the woman in the White House. Not my power, but the power of the position, a power which could be used to help."

--Mrs. Betty Ford (1918-2011), First Lady of the United States (1974-1977), Wife of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Co-Founder of the Betty Ford Center (previously the Betty Ford Clinic), Breast Cancer Survivor

A Legacy of Public Good... Mrs. Betty Ford

"We were in a position where my husband had been sworn into office during a very, very difficult time. There had been so much cover-up during Watergate that we wanted to be sure there would be no cover-up in the Ford Administration. So rather than continue this traditional silence about breast cancer, we felt we had to be public." 

--Mrs. Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States (1974-1977), Wife of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Co-Founder of the Betty Ford Center (previously the Betty Ford Clinic), Breast Cancer Survivor

1918 -- 2011