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Friday, February 24, 2023

Betty White died on December 31, 2021, at the age of 99, just 17 days before her 100th

A black and white photo of Betty White
 Betty White was an American actress and comedian with an entertainment career that spanned eight decades. White made her radio programming debut as a guest caller at the age of eight in 1930, and spent several years as a teenager working as a radio personality in Los Angeles under the guidance of disc jockey Al Jarvis. After leaving radio, White transitioned to television and became known as "the first lady of game shows." She was the first woman to receive the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for the show Just Men! in 1983.

White's most notable roles include Sue Ann Nivens on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973–1977), Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–1992), and Elka Ostrovsky on the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010–2015). White became the first woman to produce a sitcom with her show Life with Elizabeth. In 1955, she was named honorary Mayor of Hollywood.

Betty White and Alan Ladd
Betty White and Alan Ladd

White received numerous accolades throughout her career. She earned eight Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was a 1985 Television Hall of Fame inductee. White worked longer in television than anyone and earned a spot in the Guinness World Record in 2018.

Betty White died on December 31, 2021, at the age of 99, just 17 days before her 100th birthday. Her net worth was estimated to be $75 million. With her passing, she became the last surviving member of the Golden Girls cast. White will always be remembered for her impressive contributions to the entertainment industry and for being a beloved icon to fans around the world.

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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Rue McClanahan, American actress (The Golden Girls, Maude), has died of a stroke she was 76

Rue McClanahan in redRue McClanahan was an American actress, known for her roles as Vivian Cavender Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, a role that won her the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.

(February 21, 1934 – June 3, 2010)






McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Oklahoma, the daughter of Dreda Rheua-Nell (née Medaris), a beautician, and William Edwin McClanahan, a building contractor.[2][3][4]


a younger Rue McClanahan a black and white photo.
a younger Rue McClanahan 

She was of Irish and Choctaw Indian ancestry, and grew up in Ardmore, Oklahoma; she graduated from Ardmore High School. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Tulsa; she majored in German and theater and was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta.

McClanahan made her professional stage debut at Pennsylvania's Erie Playhouse in 1957 in the play Inherit the Wind. She began acting on off-Broadway in New York City in 1957, but did not make her Broadway debut until 1969 when she portrayed Sally Weber in the original production of John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal's musical, Jimmy Shine, with Dustin Hoffman in the title role.

Her role as Caroline Johnson on Another World (from July 1970 to September 1971) brought her notoriety. On the show, while taking care of twins Michael and Marianne Randolph, Caroline fell in love with their father, John, and began poisoning their mother, Pat. The short-term role was extended to more than a year before Caroline was finally brought to justice after kidnapping the twins. Once her role on Another World ended, Rue joined the cast of the CBS soap Where the Heart Is, in which she played Margaret Jardin.


The handprints of Rue McClanahan in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.
Cast of Maude
Cast of Maude

In Maude, broadcast from 1972 to 1978, McClanahan played Maude's (Bea Arthur) best friend, Vivian Harmon.

In The Golden Girls, broadcast from 1985 until 1992 and in The Golden Palace for one year afterwards, McClanahan portrayed man-crazed Southern belle Blanche Devereaux. Devereaux was the owner of a house inhabited by four roommates: herself, Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), Rose Nylund (Betty White), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). She received an Emmy Award in 1987 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show.

She also appeared as a leader of Al-Anon in a 1970's informational video called "Slight Drinking Problem," in which Patty Duke played the enabling and eventually self-empowered wife of an alcoholic.

In cinema, McClanahan starred in 1961's The Rotten Apple, as well as Walk the Angry Beach in 1968. In 1971 she played a vicious fag hag in the film Some of My Best Friends Are... which was set in a gay bar.

In 1990, McClanahan starred as Matilda Joslyn Gage, mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum in the made-for-TV-movie The Dreamer of Oz.

McClanahan also guest starred on Newhart, played Aunt Fran on the first season of Mama's Family and was honored at the 2008 TV Land Awards for the cast's role in the Golden Girls, at which she was present.

She also appeared in the episode "Blue's Big Treasure Hunt," from the children's show Blue's Clues (animated), 1999, as Grandma Burns.

An animal welfare advocate and vegetarian, McClanahan was one of the first celebrity supporters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

A Democrat, in December 2003, she wrote a letter informing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry that his pheasant hunting had cost him her vote and respect.

In 2003 she appeared in the musical romantic comedy film The Fighting Temptations as Nancy Stringer, which co-starred Cuba Gooding Jr., Beyonce Knowles, Mike Epps and Steve Harvey. She replaced Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible in the musical Wicked on May 31, 2005. She played the role for eight months and departed the cast on January 8, 2006. She was replaced by Carol Kane on January 10, 2006.

Her autobiography, My First Five Husbands . . . and the Ones Who Got Away, was released in 2007.

In June 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the 'Pop Culture' award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. Rue accepted the award with co-stars Bea Arthur and Betty White.

McClanahan's last acting role was in the cable series Sordid Lives on the Logo network, which premiered July 23, 2008, playing Peggy Ingram, the older sister of Sissy Hickey and mother of Latrelle, LaVonda and Earl "Brother Boy".

Rue McClanahan bald and smilingIn June 1997 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, from which she completely recovered.

On November 14, 2009, she was to be honored for her lifetime achievements at an event "Golden: A Gala Tribute To Rue McClanahan" at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California.[7] The event was postponed due to McClanahan's hospitalization. She had triple bypass surgery on November 4. It was announced on January 14, 2010, by Entertainment Tonight that, while recovering from surgery, she had suffered a minor stroke. In March 2010, Betty White reported on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that McClanahan was doing well and that her speech had returned to normal.[8]

McClanahan died on June 3, 2010 at 1:00 a.m. in the New York–Presbyterian Hospital after she suffered another stroke and subsequently a brain hemorrhage. She was 76 years old. She died with her son, Mark Bish, her sister, Dr. Melinda L. McClanahan, and her nephew, Brendan Kinkade by her side.

According to her rep, "Last week, she told her publicist...she was doing great. She didn't feel well on Monday."

McClanahan's longtime friend Betty White, who co-starred with Rue on both Mama's Family and The Golden Girls, told Entertainment Tonight that Rue was a "close friend and dear friend" and that her death "hurts more than I ever thought it would".

McClanahan is survived by estranged husband Morrow Wilson (from whom she separated in 2009), by her son from her first marriage, Mark Bish of Austin, Texas, and by her sister, Melinda L. McClanahan, of Silver City, New Mexico. While there will be no funeral for McClanahan, as she did not wish to have one, her family has created an official memorial page on Facebook, and memorial services are planned for summer 2010 in New York and Los Angeles.

Nominations/awards

Emmy Nomination/Awards:

Golden Globe Nominations:

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical for: The Golden Girls (1986)
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical for: The Golden Girls (1987)
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical for: The Golden Girls (1988)

Obie Awards (off-Broadway):

Golden Apple Awards:

TV Land Awards:

Television work

Filmography

To see more about Beatrice Arthur click here.
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Sunday, April 26, 2009

Beatrice Arthur died she was 86

Beatrice Arthur
Beatrice "Bea" Arthur died she was 86. Arthur was an American comedian, actress, and singer. In a career spanning seven decades, Arthur achieved success as the title character, Maude Findlay, on the 1970s sitcom Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls; she won Emmys for both roles.




(May 13, 1922 – April 25, 2009)



Arthur was born Bernice Frankel to Philip and Rebecca Frankel in New York City on May 13, 1922.[2] Her family soon moved to Maryland where her parents operated a women's clothing shop. She attended the now-defunct Blackstone College in Blackstone, Virginia where she was active in drama productions.

Arthur began her acting career as a member of an off Broadway theater group at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City in the late 1940s. On stage, her roles included "Lucy Brown" in the 1954 Off-Broadway premiere of Marc Blitzstein's English-language adaptation of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, "Yente the Matchmaker" in the 1964 premiere of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, and a 1966 Tony Award-winning portrayal of "Vera Charles" to Angela Lansbury's Mame. She reprised the role in the 1974 film version opposite Lucille Ball. In 1981, she appeared in Woody Allen's The Floating Lightbulb.[3]



In 1972, Arthur was cast as the title character in the television series Maude. She played Maude Findlay, an outspoken liberal living in the affluent community of Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York, with her husband, Walter (Bill Macy) and divorced daughter Carol (Adrienne Barbeau). The show was a spin-off from All in the Family, on which Arthur had appeared a couple of times in the same role, playing Edith Bunker's cousin, a feminist, and antithesis to the bigoted, conservative Archie Bunker, who described Maude as a "New Deal fanatic". Her role garnered several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, including her Emmy win in 1977 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

In 1978, she costarred in the poorly-received The Star Wars Holiday Special, in which she had a song and dance routine in the Mos Eisley Cantina.

After appearing in the short-lived 1983 sitcom Amanda's (an unsuccessful U.S. version of the British hit series Fawlty Towers), Arthur was cast in the hit sitcom The Golden Girls in 1985, in which she played Dorothy Zbornak, a divorced substitute teacher living in a Miami house owned by Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). Her other roommates included widow Rose Nylund (Betty White) and Dorothy's Sicilian mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). Getty was actually a year younger than Arthur in real life, and was heavily made up to look significantly older. Arthur's character, Dorothy, had a caustic sense of humor and was prone to making witty and sarcastic wisecracks. The series was a huge hit, remaining a top ten ratings fixture for six seasons. Her performance led to several Emmy nominations over the course of the series and an Emmy win in 1988. Arthur decided to leave the show after seven years and in 1992, the show was moved from NBC to CBS and retooled as The Golden Palace in which the other three actresses reprised their roles. Arthur made a guest appearance in a two-part episode, but the show only lasted for one season before it was cancelled.


After Arthur left The Golden Girls, she made several guest appearances on television shows and even organized and toured with her one-woman show. She made a guest appearance on the American cartoon Futurama, in the Emmy-nominated episode, "Amazon Women in the Mood", as the voice of the Femputer who ruled the giant Amazonian women. She also appeared in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle as Dewey's babysitter. She was nominated for a guest-star Emmy for her performance. She also showed up as Larry David's mother on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

In 2002, she returned to Broadway starring in Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, a collection of stories and songs (with musician Billy Goldenberg) based on her life and career. The show was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event, but lost to Elaine Stritch: At Liberty.

In 2005, she participated in the Comedy Central roast of Pamela Anderson, delivering a deadpan reading of excerpts from Pamela's book Star: The Novel, most notably the part that describes receiving sodomy-related advice.


Arthur was inducted into Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2008.[4] On June 8, 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the Pop Culture award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. Arthur accepted the award with co-stars Rue McClanahan and Betty White.[5]


Influences
In 1999, Arthur told an interviewer of the three influences in her career: "Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous; [method acting guru] Lee Strasberg taught me what I call reality; and [the original Threepenny Opera star], Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."[6]


Older picture of Beatrice ARthurArthur was married twice, first to Robert Alan Aurthur, a screenwriter, television, and film producer and director, whose surname she took and kept though with a modified spelling, and second to director Gene Saks from 1950 to 1978 with whom she adopted two sons, Matthew (born July 14, 1961), an actor, and Daniel (born May 8, 1964), a set designer.

She primarily lived in the Greater Los Angeles Area and had sublet her apartment on Central Park West in New York City and her country home in Bedford, New York.


According to her spokesman, Dan Watt, Beatrice Arthur died peacefully at her home in the Greater Los Angeles Area in the early morning hours of April 25, 2009, aged 86. She had been suffering from cancer, but Watt declined to go into specific details.[7][6][8]

In addition to her sons, she is survived by a sister who lives in Montreal, Quebec, and two granddaughters.

To see more about Rue McClanahan, click here.
To see more about Betty White click here.
To see more about Estelle Getty click here.
To see more about "The Golden Girls
click here.
To see 10 facts that you didnt know about Betty White click here.

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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Betty Ford, American First Lady (1974–1977) and co-founder of Betty Ford Center died she was , 93.

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford  died she was , 93.. As First Lady, she was active in social policy and created precedents as a politically active presidential wife.
Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings despite opposition from some conservative Republicans who objected to her more moderate and liberal positions on social issues. Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness following her 1974 mastectomy and was a passionate supporter of, and activist for, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Pro-choice on abortion and a leader in the Women's Movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on every hot-button issue of the time, including feminism, equal pay, the ERA, sex, drugs, abortion, and gun control. She also raised awareness of addiction when she announced her long-running battle with alcoholism in the 1970s.
Following her White House years, she continued to lobby for the ERA and remained active in the feminist movement. She is the founder, and served as the first chairwoman of the board of directors, of the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction and is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal (co-presentation with her husband, Gerald R. Ford, October 21, 1998) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (alone, presented 1991, by George H. W. Bush).

(April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011)

Early life and career



She was born Elizabeth Ann Bloomer in Chicago, Illinois, the third child and only daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr. (July 19, 1874 – July 18, 1934), a traveling salesman for Royal Rubber Co., and his wife, Hortense (née Neahr; July 11, 1884 – November 20, 1948).[5] Her two older brothers were Robert and William Jr. After living briefly in Denver, Colorado, she grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated from Central High School.[6]
After the 1929 stock market crash, when Ford was age 14, she began modeling clothes and teaching children dances such as the foxtrot, waltz, and big apple. She also entertained and worked with children with disabilities at the Mary Free Bed Home for Crippled Children. She studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in 1935.[citation needed]
When Ford was age 16, her father died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family's garage while working under their car, despite the garage doors being open;[7][8] he died the day before his 60th birthday.[5]
In 1936, after she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in New York City, New York, but her mother refused. Instead, she attended the Bennington School of Dance in Bennington, Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under director Martha Hill with choreographers Martha Graham and Hanya Holm. After being accepted by Graham as a student, Ford moved to New York City to live in its Manhattan borough's Chelsea neighborhood and worked as a fashion model for the John Robert Powers firm in order to finance her dance studies. She joined Graham's auxiliary troupe and eventually performed with the company at Carnegie Hall in New York City.[5]
Her mother opposed her daughter's choice of a career and insisted that she move home, but Ford resisted. They finally came to a compromise: she would return home for six months, and if she still wanted to return to New York City at the end of the six months, her mother would not protest further. Ford became immersed in her life in Grand Rapids and did not return to New York City. Her mother remarried to family friend and neighbor, Arthur Meigs Goodwin, and Ford lived with them. She got a job as assistant to the fashion coordinator for Herpolsheimer's, a local department store, as well as organizing her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids.[5]

Marriages and family

In 1942, she married William C. Warren,[6] who worked for his father in insurance sales, and whom she had known since she was 12. Warren began selling insurance for another company shortly after, later he worked for Continental Can Co., and after that Widdicomb Furniture, and the couple moved frequently because of his work. At one point, they lived in Toledo, Ohio, where she was employed at the department store Lasalle & Koch as a demonstrator, a job that entailed being a model and saleswoman. She worked a production line for a frozen-food company in Fulton, New York, and once back in Grand Rapids returned to work at Herpolsheimer's, this time as "The" Fashion Coordinator.[9] Warren was an alcoholic, and in poor health. Just after Betty decided to file for divorce, he went into a coma. She took care of him for another two years as he convalesced, and they were finally divorced on September 22, 1947, on the grounds of "excessive, repeated cruelty".[5] They had no children.
On October 15, 1948, she married Gerald Ford, a lawyer and World War II veteran, at Grace Episcopal Church, in Grand Rapids. Gerald Ford was then campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, as The New York Times reported, "Jerry was running for Congress and wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer."[5][10]
Married for fifty-eight years until his death, the couple had three sons: Michael Gerald Ford (born 1950), John Gardner Ford (nicknamed Jack; born 1952), Steven Meigs Ford (born 1956), and a daughter, Susan Elizabeth Ford (born 1957).[2] She never spanked or hit her children, believing that there were better, more constructive ways to deal with discipline and punishment.[11]
The Fords moved to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and lived there for twenty-five years. Gerald Ford rose to become the highest-ranking Republican in the House, then was appointed Vice President to Richard Nixon when Spiro Agnew resigned from that position in 1973. He became president in 1974, upon Nixon's resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
They were among the more openly affectionate First Couples in American history. Neither was shy about their mutual love and equal respect, and they were known to have a strong personal and political partnership.[12]

First Lady of the United States



When compared to her predecessor, Pat Nixon, who was noted by one reporter to be the "most disciplined, composed first lady in history", reporters questioned what kind of first lady Ford would be.[13] In the opinion of The New York Times and several presidential historians, "Mrs. Ford's impact on American culture may be far wider and more lasting than that of her husband, who served a mere 896 days, much of it spent trying to restore the dignity of the office of the president."
The paper went on to describe her as "a product and symbol of the cultural and political times — doing the Bump dance along the corridors of the White House, donning a mood ring, chatting on her CB radio with the handle First Mama — a housewife who argued passionately for equal rights for women, a mother of four who mused about drugs, abortion and premarital sex aloud and without regret."[14] In 1975, in an interview with McCall's, Ford said that she was asked just about everything, except for how often she and the president had sex. "And if they'd asked me that I would have told them," she said, adding that her response would be, "As often as possible."[8]
She was open about the benefits of psychiatric treatment, and spoke understandingly about marijuana use and premarital sex, and as a new First Lady pointedly stated during a televised White House tour that she and the President shared the same bed. After Ford appeared on 60 Minutes in a characteristically candid interview in which she discussed how she would counsel her daughter if she was having an affair, saying that she "would not be surprised,"[15] and the possibility that her children may have experimented with marijuana. Some conservatives called her "No Lady" and even demanded her "resignation", but her overall approval rating was at seventy-five percent. As she later said, during her husband's failed 1976 presidential campaign, "I would give my life to have Jerry have my poll numbers."[14]

Social policy and political activism

During her time as First Lady, Ford was also an outspoken advocate of women's rights and was a prominent force in the Women's Movement of the 1970s. She supported the proposed ERA and lobbied state legislatures to ratify the amendment, and took on opponents of the amendment. She was also un-apologetically pro-choice[16] and her active political role prompted Time to call her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and name her a Woman of the Year in 1975, representing American women along with other feminist icons.[4]
For a time, it was unclear whether Gerald Ford shared his wife's pro-choice viewpoint. However, in December 1999, he told interviewer Larry King that he, too, was pro-choice and had been criticized for that stance by conservative forces within the Republican Party.[16]

 Health and breast cancer awareness

Weeks after Ford became First Lady, she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer on September 28, 1974 resulting in her being diagnosed with the disease. Ford decided to be open about her cancer because "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"[17] Her openness about her illness raised the visibility of a disease that Americans had previously been reluctant to talk about. "When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines," she told Time. "But the fact that I was the wife of the President put it in headlines and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person — maybe more." Further amplifying the public awareness of breast cancer were reports that several weeks after Ford's cancer surgery, Happy Rockefeller, the wife of vice president Nelson Rockefeller, also underwent a mastectomy.[18] The spike in women self-examining after Ford went public with the diagnosis led to an increase in reported cases of breast cancer, a phenomenon known as the "Betty Ford blip".[17]

The arts

Ford was an advocate of the arts while First Lady and was instrumental in Martha Graham receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976. She received an award from Parsons The New School for Design in recognition of her style.

Conceding the 1976 election

After Gerald Ford's defeat by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 Presidential election she delivered her husband's concession speech because he lost his voice while campaigning.[2]

Post-White House career

After leaving the White House in 1977, she continued to lead an active public life. In addition to founding the Betty Ford Center, she remained active in women's issues taking on numerous speaking engagements and lending her name to charities for fundraising.[19]
In 1978, the Ford family staged an intervention and forced her to confront her alcoholism and an addiction to opioid analgesics that had been prescribed in the early 1960s for a pinched nerve.] "I liked alcohol," she wrote in her 1987 memoir. "It made me feel warm. And I loved pills. They took away my tension and my pain". In 1982, after her recovery, she established the Betty Ford Center (initially called the Betty Ford Clinic) in Rancho Mirage, California, for the treatment of chemical dependency.[citation needed] She co-authored with Chris Chase a 1987 book about her treatment, Betty: A Glad Awakening. In 2003, Ford produced another book, Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery.
In 2005, Ford relinquished her chairmanship of the center's board of directors to her daughter Susan. She had held the top post at the center since its founding. Her husband joked about how she had been chairman of the board while he had only been a president.[12]

Women's movement

Ford continued to be an active leader and activist of the feminist movement after the Ford administration, and continued to strongly advocate and lobby politicians and state legislatures for passage of the ERA. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Ford to the second National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year (the first had been appointed by President Ford). That same year, she joined First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Rosalynn Carter to open and participate in the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas, where she endorsed measures in the convention's National Plan of Action, a report sent to the state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, and the President on how to improve the status of American women.[20] As she was during her years in the White House, Ford continued to be an outspoken supporter of equal pay, breast cancer awareness, and the ERA throughout her life.[21]
In 1978, the deadline for ratification of the ERA was extended from 1979 to 1982, resulting largely from a march of a hundred thousand people on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The march was led by prominent feminist leaders, including Ford, Bella Abzug, Elizabeth Chittick, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. In 1981, Eleanor Smeal, the National Organization for Women's president, announced Ford's appointment to be the co-chair, with Alan Alda, of the ERA Countdown Campaign.[22] As the deadline approached, Ford led marches, parades and rallies for the ERA with other feminists including First Daughter Maureen Reagan and various Hollywood actors. Ford was credited with rejuvenating the ERA movement and inspiring more women to continue working for the ERA and visited states, including Illinois, where ratification was believed to have the most realistic chance of passing.[23] In 2004, she reaffirmed her pro-choice stance and her support for the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade and reaffirmed her belief in and support for the ratification of the ERA.

Later life

In 1987, Ford underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery and recovered without complications.
In November 18, 1991, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H.W. Bush[24] and a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
On May 8, 2003, Ford received the Woodrow Wilson Award in Los Angeles for her public service from the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution.[citation needed]
During these years, she and her husband resided in Rancho Mirage and in Beaver Creek, Colorado.[citation needed]
Gerald Ford died, age 93, at their Rancho Mirage home of heart failure on December 26, 2006. Despite her advanced age and frail physical condition, Ford traveled across the country and took part in the funeral events in California, Washington, D.C., and Michigan.
Following her husband's death, Ford continued to live in Rancho Mirage. At age 93, she was the oldest surviving former occupant of the White House. She was also the third longest-lived first lady behind Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson. Poor health and increasing frailty due to operations in August 2006 and April 2007 for blood clots in her legs caused her to largely curtail her public life. Her ill health prevented her from attending Johnson's funeral in July 2007; Ford's daughter Susan represented her mother at the funeral service.
 Gerald and Betty Ford were the first U.S. President and First Lady to both live into their nineties. Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson lived into their nineties but their husbands Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson did not. Herbert Hoover and John Adams both lived into their nineties but their wives Lou Henry Hoover and Abigail Adams did not. On April 8, 2011, Ford turned 93, the same age that her late husband, President Ford reached on his last birthday, July 14, 2006. On July 6, 2011, former First Lady Nancy Reagan turned 90, and thus she and her husband, former President Ronald Reagan, joined the Fords as the second first couple to both live into their nineties.

Death and funeral

Betty Ford died of natural causes on July 8, 2011, at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, aged 93.[25]
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.[19] Rosalynn Carter, Cokie Roberts and Geoffrey Mason, 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.[26]
On July 14, a second service was held at Grace Episcopal Church with eulogies given by Lynne 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.[19] In her remarks, Mrs. Cheney noted that July 14 would have been Gerald Ford's 98th birthday.[27] After the service, she was buried next to her husband on the museum grounds.[26]
Former President Clinton had been scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., meet his wife, and travel to the service in Palm Springs. However, a mechanical problem caused his plane to be delayed and, after discussing the situation, they agreed that she would leave without him in order to arrive on time.[28]

Bibliography

 

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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...