RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) –
Leading up to America’s 250th birthday, we are revealing things you may not know about our presidents.
We feature a man who took an unexpected and unlikely road to the White House.
He was an expert downhill skier who served for only 895 days in the White House.
Leslie Lynch King Jr. was born on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was named after his biological father. His mother divorced King, moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and remarried in 1917 to Gerald R. Ford. Leslie King Jr. would legally changed his name to Gerald R. Ford Jr. in 1935.
Ford was a high school football star who went to the University of Michigan on a football scholarship, winning two National Championships with the Wolverines in 1932 & 1933. Graduating from Michigan in 1935, he went on to get his law degree from Yale in 1941.
Ford enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served on an aircraft carrier.
He married Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer Warren in 1948. The couple had four children.
His career in politics began in 1948 when he was elected to the US House of Representatives. Ford served 25 years in the House and was a member of the Warren Commission that investigated the Kennedy assassination.
In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after being convicted of bribery and tax evasion. President Nixon appointed Ford VP under the 25th Amendment.
In 1974, the Watergate scandal came to a head, with Nixon resigning on August 9 before he could be impeached. Gerald Ford was sworn in on that day as the 38th President of the United States. The first unelected president. Ford said in his inaugural address, “Our long national nightmare is over.”
Just about one month later, on September 8, 1974, Ford made the controversial decision to pardon Nixon for any crimes he had committed.
Ford survived two assassination attempts 17 days apart. The most famous incident in Sacramento in 1975 was when Charles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme pointed a gun at the president, but was tackled by a Secret Service agent before she could get off a shot.
Ford lost the White House to democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976. He retired to California and died in 2006. Gerald Ford was 93 years old.
His wife, Betty, battled alcoholism and is most notably known for the Betty Ford Clinic, a celebrity treatment center offering health services for drug and alcohol addiction.
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