Susan Ford

Infobox Person
name = Susan Ford

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image_size = 220 px
caption = "Susan Ford"
birth_date = birth date and age|1957|7|6
birth_place = Washington D.C., United States
death_date =
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spouse = Vaden Bales, 1989 - present
Charles Vance, 1979 -1988
parents = Gerald R. Ford, Betty Ford
children =
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website =

Susan Elizabeth Ford Bales, known as Susan Ford Vance in a previous marriage, (born July 6,1957, in Washington, D.C.) is an American author, photojournalist, and the chairman of the board of the Betty Ford Center for alcohol and drug abuse.

Biography

Youth

Ford Bales is the youngest child and only daughter of the late U.S. President Gerald R. Ford and his wife Betty. She was one of three people targeted for violence by the Symbionese Liberation Army and had Secret Service protection well before her father became president. As a teenager attending the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, she held her senior prom in the East Room. She served as official White House hostess when her mother was hospitalized for breast cancer.

Career

Ford Bales trained as a photographer and worked as a photojournalist for the Associated Press, "Newsweek", "Money Magazine", "Ladies Home Journal", the "Topeka Capital-Journal", "the Omaha Sun" and also freelanced. [ [http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/02/authors_ford040802.htm Washingtonpost.com: Live Online ] ]

In 1992 she became a member of the board of the Betty Ford Center and in 2005 became the chairman of the organization. She succeeded her mother, who remained a board member. [ [http://www.bettyfordcenter.org/news/innews/narticle.php?id=4 Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation - Betty Ford Center News ] ]

Writings

In 2002, she wrote, with Laura Hayden, a novel, "Double Exposure: A First Daughter Mystery", with a contemporary White House setting and a sequel "Sharp Focus" in 2005.

Public duties

In recent years and in addition to her responsibilities at the Betty Ford Center, Susan has been very active on behalf of her parents and the Ford family at numerous events throughout the U.S. That was particularly so during the December 26, 2006 - January 3, 2007 state funeral services and ceremonies for her father. During that period, she attended each of the services and ceremonies with her mother, and over the course of several days personally greeted mourners while President Ford's casket lay in state on the Lincoln Catafalque in the Capital Rotunda and during the public repose at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. [ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070101/ap_on_re_us/gerald_ford ] She read a passage from the Letter of James during the funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral, and her daughter Tyne Berlanga offered one of the Prayers during the funeral service at Grace Church in Grand Rapids. [ [http://religion.beloblog.com/archives/2006/12/fords_funeral.html Religion Blog | The Dallas Morning News ] ] In addition, on January 1, she assisted her mother in receiving dignitaries and other official visitors who had come to Blair House to pay their personal respects.

On January 16, 2007, Susan spoke at a Naming Ceremony at the Pentagon. [http://www.gvsu.edu/ford/index.cfm?id=64CE86AD-B639-5F3E-1D2A21C288593229] At the Naming Ceremony, the aircraft carrier CVN-78, now under construction, was officially named the USS Gerald R. Ford. That same day Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter announced that Susan had been named the carrier's ceremonial sponsor. On June 11, 2007, she delivered remarks in Washington, DC at the ceremony unveiling the U.S. Postal Service's image of the commemorative stamp honoring President Ford. In July 2007, Susan represented her mother at the funeral service of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. Also in July 2007, she and her husband Vaden Bales represented Mrs. Ford and the Ford family at the naming of the Gerald R. Ford Post Office in Vail, Colorado.

Personal life

She dated actor Anson Williams while her father served as president.

She married Charles Vance, one of her father's former Secret Service agents, on February 10 1979. For a time they operated a private security company in Washington. They had two daughters, Tyne Mary (born 1980) and Heather Elizabeth (born 1983), and were divorced in 1988. She married attorney Vaden Bales in 1989.

In 1984, Ford Bales and her mother, Betty Ford, helped launch [http://www.nbcam.com/about_history.cfm National Breast Cancer Awareness Month] with a joint appearance in an ad campaign.

She lives outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her husband and their five children from previous marriages. Like her parents and brothers before her, Susan is Episcopalian.

Bibliography

*Degregorio, William A., "The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents" (5th edition), Barricade Books, Fort Lee, New Jersey, 2001.
*Wead, Doug, "All the President's Children", Atria Books, New York, 2003, ISBN 0-7434-4631-3

References

External links

* [http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_07-10-2005/featured_1 "You Give Back, You Don't Give Up"] , "PARADE"
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/22/DDGJO4EJ9U1.DTL Just ask Chelsea, Jenna and Barbara: Escaping the glare of the spotlight isn't easy for kids whose dads work in the Oval Office] - San Francisco Chronicle