BETTY FORD
Name: Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford
Born: 8 April 1918 Chicago, Illinois, USA
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (born April 8, 1918) is the widow of former
United States President Gerald R. Ford and was the First Lady from 1974 to 1977.
She is the founder and former chairwoman of the board of directors of the Betty
Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction and a recipient of the
Congressional Gold Medal.
Born in Chicago as Elizabeth Ann Bloomer, she was the third child and only
daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr., a travelling salesman for Royal
Rubber Co., and his wife, the former Hortense Neahr. She had two older brothers,
Robert and William, Jr., and after living briefly in Denver, she grew up in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated from Central High School.
After the 1929 stock market crash, when Betty Bloomer was eleven, she began
modeling clothes and teaching other children dances such as the foxtrot, waltz,
and big apple. She studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in
1935.
When Bloomer was sixteen her father—a compleate alcoholic—died by carbon
monoxide poisoning, reportedly while working on the family car in the Bloomers'
garage; whether it was an accident or suicide remains unknown. In 1933, after
she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in
New York, but her mother refused. Instead, Bloomer attended the Bennington
School of Dance in Bennington, Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under
Martha Graham and Hanya Holm.
After being accepted by Graham as a student, Betty Bloomer moved to Manhattan’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.
Her mother, now remarried to Arthur Meigs Godwin, opposed her daughter’s choice
of a career and insisted that she move home, but Bloomer resisted. They finally
came to a compromise: she would return home for six months, and if nothing
worked out for her in New York, she would return to Michigan, which she did in
1941. She became the fashion coordinator for a local department store. She also
organized her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids,
including to children with disabilities.
Name: Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford
Born: 8 April 1918 Chicago, Illinois, USA
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford (born April 8, 1918) is the widow of former
United States President Gerald R. Ford and was the First Lady from 1974 to 1977.
She is the founder and former chairwoman of the board of directors of the Betty
Ford Center for substance abuse and addiction and a recipient of the
Congressional Gold Medal.
Born in Chicago as Elizabeth Ann Bloomer, she was the third child and only
daughter of William Stephenson Bloomer, Sr., a travelling salesman for Royal
Rubber Co., and his wife, the former Hortense Neahr. She had two older brothers,
Robert and William, Jr., and after living briefly in Denver, she grew up in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she graduated from Central High School.
After the 1929 stock market crash, when Betty Bloomer was eleven, she began
modeling clothes and teaching other children dances such as the foxtrot, waltz,
and big apple. She studied dance at the Calla Travis Dance Studio, graduating in
1935.
When Bloomer was sixteen her father—a compleate alcoholic—died by carbon
monoxide poisoning, reportedly while working on the family car in the Bloomers'
garage; whether it was an accident or suicide remains unknown. In 1933, after
she graduated from high school, she proposed continuing her study of dance in
New York, but her mother refused. Instead, Bloomer attended the Bennington
School of Dance in Bennington, Vermont, for two summers, where she studied under
Martha Graham and Hanya Holm.
After being accepted by Graham as a student, Betty Bloomer moved to Manhattan’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.
Her mother, now remarried to Arthur Meigs Godwin, opposed her daughter’s choice
of a career and insisted that she move home, but Bloomer resisted. They finally
came to a compromise: she would return home for six months, and if nothing
worked out for her in New York, she would return to Michigan, which she did in
1941. She became the fashion coordinator for a local department store. She also
organized her own dance group and taught dance at various sites in Grand Rapids,
including to children with disabilities.