PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) — First ladies, past and present, and others who called the White House home remembered Betty Ford on Tuesday, not just for her decades-long work against substance abuse but for contributing to a political era when friendship among lawmakers helped them govern.
The casket containing the former first lady's body
arrived in the late morning at the Southern California desert church where she
and the nation's 38th president, her late husband, President Gerald R. Ford,
worshipped.
It was followed into the church a short time later
by mourners who arrived by the busload at this desert resort town where the
temperature was expected to reach 102 degrees.
Reporters and other onlookers were kept across a
large roadway from the church and were unable to make out those arriving. But
first Lady Michelle Obama and former first ladies Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan
and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were expected.
Ford, who died at the age of 93 on Friday, had
mapped out plans for the ceremony at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, including
who would deliver her eulogies.
She chose Carter and journalist Cokie Roberts, as
well as Geoffrey Mason, a former director of the Betty Ford Center for
substance abuse and alcohol treatment. The center, whose creation was inspired
by Ford's own battles with drugs and alcohol, has helped thousands and will
live on as her legacy.
A spokesman for former President George W. Bush
said the president would also attend Tuesday's service and convey condolences
on behalf of his wife, Laura, who couldn't be there. Former President Bill
Clinton had to cancel plans to attend when the plane he was to arrive on
developed mechanical problems.
Others who planned to attend included President
Richard Nixon's daughters, Tricia Nixon-Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower;
President Lyndon Johnson's daughters, Lucie Baines Johnson and Lynda Bird
Johnson Robb; and Robb's husband, former U.S. Sen. Charles Robb.
Following the funeral, members of the public were
invited to file past the casket and sign a guest book until midnight.
A second funeral will be held Thursday in Grand
Rapids, Mich., where Gerald Ford is buried at his presidential museum. Former
first lady Barbara Bush is expected to attend that event.
California Highway Patrol motorcycles and squad
cars escorted Ford's hearse and her family members to Tuesday's service in four
black sedans and six SUVS.
The hearse pulled up to the church's side entrance
at 11:20 a.m. and the casket was carried inside, followed by about two dozen
mourners, including family members.
Other mourners began arriving by the busload about
an hour later, after the family was given private time inside the church. Ford
family spokeswoman Barbara Lewandrowski said family members had also gathered
over the weekend to reflect on Ford's life.
"They are reading emails and telling stories,
enjoying each other's fellowship," she said.
A program prepared for the service featured a
picture of Ford, the Emily Dickinson poem "If I Can Stop One Heart From
Breaking," and the words, "The family thanks you for your
support," followed by the signatures Mike, Jack, Steve and Susan, Ford's
four children.
Jack and Michael Ford were to read passages from
the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
Outside the church, news media trucks were lined up
on a nearby street. TV cameras were crowded onto big-rig flatbed trucks.
Earlier in the day, passers-by, some walking dogs
or out for a jog, stopped to reflect on the former first lady's life.
"I don't know where a lot of people would be
if it weren't for her," said Randy Gaynor, 47, a recovering alcoholic.
"There's been a lot of first ladies and they did a lot of things, but this
will be long remembered after she's gone."
Ford, the accidental first lady, was thrust into
the White House when Nixon resigned as president on Aug. 9, 1974, and her
husband, then vice president, assumed the nation's highest office. Although she
never expected nor wanted to be first lady, she quickly embraced the role,
reshaping it with her plain-talking candor and outgoing personality.
Roberts, a commentator on National Public Radio,
said Ford asked her to give a eulogy five years ago and specified it should be
about the power of friendship to mend political differences even in these
hyper-partisan times.
"Mrs. Ford was very clear about what she
wanted me to say," Roberts said. "She wanted me to talk about
Washington the way it used to be. She knew there were people back then who were
wildly partisan, but not as many as today."
When Roberts' father, Democratic Congressman Hale
Boggs, was House majority leader and Ford's husband was House minority leader,
Roberts recalled, they could argue about issues but get together as friends
afterward. Their families became close, as did the Ford and Carter families,
despite Jimmy Carter defeating Ford in the 1976 presidential election.
Carter spoke at Gerald Ford's funeral in 2007. The
two families were so close that before his death, Ford asked the Carters to
join his wife aboard Air Force One, which flew his body to its final resting
place in Grand Rapids.
"They were friends and that was what made
government possible," said Roberts, adding that the topic seems
particularly appropriate this week when the two parties are divided over
dealing with the national debt ceiling.
On Wednesday, Ford's body will be flown to Grand
Rapids where another church service Thursday will feature remarks by Lynne
Cheney, wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and historian Richard Norton
Smith.
Later Thursday, her body will be interred at the
presidential museum along with her husband on the day that would have been
Gerald Ford's 98th birthday.
Jeff Wilson reported from Palm Desert and John
Rogers reported from Los Angeles.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
