Betty Ford – former US Lady expires at the age 93

Betty Ford, Past American First Lady, the widow of former President Gerald Ford and founder of drug treatment facility the Betty Ford Center, has passed away at the age of 93.

Mrs. Ford, who was famous for her valid views on public issues, founded the drug and alcohol cure facility in 1982.

Mrs. Ford was recognized one of the most visible first ladies in US history. She was married to Mr. Ford, who died in 2006, for 58 years.

Mrs. Ford, had resided in California since her husband's demise, died on Friday evening with family at her bedside, according to a family member.

"As our state's First Lady, she was a influential supporter for women's health and women's rights," President Barack Obama said, following the news of Mrs. Ford's death.

He further said: "After exiting the White House, Mrs Ford assisted declines the social disgrace surrounding addiction and stimulated thousands to search much-needed treatment."

"I was deeply distressed this afternoon when I come to know of Betty Ford's death," another previous First Lady, Nancy Reagan, said in a statement.

Anybody tackled life's difficulties with more strength or sincerity, and as a result, we all erudite from the defies she faced”

Mrs Reagan says that Mrs Ford was her husband's "power through some very harder days in our country's history".

Mrs, Ford, who succeeded wars with breast cancer, and drug and alcohol addiction, required to raise responsiveness about both issues. She was also forthright on women's rights issues.

She was distinguished for helping to create the Betty Ford Center for drug and alcohol cure in Rancho Mirage in California, a facility where huge numbers of addicts have been treated.

Former President George HW Bush said on Friday that "no one defied life's struggles with more strength or sincerity".

"The Betty Ford Center, which already has assisted change the lives of largest numbers of people, will be her lasting inheritance of care and concern," Mr. Bush said.

Mrs. Ford was born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer in Chicago in the state of Illinois in 1918 and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as one of three children.

After learning dance at Bennington College in Vermont, she shifted to New York City at the age of 21 to work as a dancer and model before heading back to the mid-western US two years later.

Mrs. Ford congregated and married her first husband, William Warren, in 1942 but divorced after five years.

After some times, she met Gerald Ford, a Navy lieutenant at the time.

The two resided in the Washington DC area for about thirty years as Mr Ford gone up from Capitol Hill, where he served as a congressman, to the White House, where he held the presidency from 1974-1977.