The Remarkable Mrs. Ford

60 Minutes Revisits A Very Candid Interview With The Former First Lady

(CBS) 
A few days after the intervention, Betty turned 60, and two days later, she entered Long Beach Naval Hospital’s alcohol and drug rehabilitation unit. And once again, she went public, admitting her addictions. She got sober and helped found the Betty Ford Treatment Center that has served tens of thousands of patients.

And she was not just the name on the sign – back then, when she was chairwoman of the board, she used to personally address all of the patients.

"Do you stand up there and you say, 'I'm Betty Ford, and I'm an alcoholic'?" Stahl asked.

"Yes," Mrs. Ford replied. "I'm there to talk to them and share my story."

During a tour of the facility, Mrs. Ford pointed out the separate male and female dorms. Patients are forced to live with roommates.

Mrs. Ford wanted the center to emulate the treatment she got in 1978 at Long Beach when she was assigned three roommates.

"I wanted to have a private room, believe me," she explained. "And I threatened I wouldn't stay."

After all, she had just been the first lady. But she backed down and ended up with roommates. And now at her own center everybody lives the way she did.

"It helps you hear somebody else’s story," Mrs. Ford explains.

All the patients who graduate from the center are expected to attend 12-step programs like AA and Mrs. Ford herself told Stahl she meet regularly with a group of women, sometimes several times a week.

When Stahl visited the Fords, presidential portraitist Ray Kinstler was finishing a painting of Betty for the main entrance of the center, a tribute to this woman of candor who took her personal tragedies and turned them into public health initiatives.

60 Minutes was there when Mrs. Ford saw it for the first time, and we learned that her gift for honesty is as sharp as it ever was.

"It's lovely. I just expected something more mature and…," she reacted.

"You have to be the first person who's ever said to a portrait artist, 'Put some lines in my face,'" Stahl remarked.

"You know, it's generally the opposite," Kinstler said.

Asked if she has a sense why she would say something like that, Ford replied, "Well, it's from looking in the mirror every day."

[mjv2944]

This is one great lady. Gerald Ford is the one and only repub presidential candidate I ever voted for. He and his wife are the best of the best. I always wondered what he thought of ole Dubya.

[dmorg4]

I admire her honesty of course but i cant agree
with all of her veiws on abortion social issues
though.

[bashir2001]

Although i like Leslie as a person, i mean she is very attractive, clearly bright, but i dont like the way she interviews her subjects.She is rather pushy if even when gets willing subjects who are candor enough to share it all.Leslie still seems to to find herself being rude, by abrubtly ruining the mood or the flow of the interview with her pushy 'Tell me the truth' tactics.I wish she could find a classier, more subtle way to dig some between the lines confessions.Other than that- i think Betty Ford is a fascinating,admirable character- i would mind going to the library and get a good Biography on her.




Bashir A. Minneapolis

[tuscamiller]

Betty and Gerald Ford represent the VERY BEST of modern day First Ladies and Presidents, with Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter running a close second.
WHY? Their answers about themselves are REAL - they are not afraid to reveal themselves because they are not afraid of the consequences. WHY OH WHY can't we have leaders such as these today?