Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford

Dorothy Ayer Gardner King Ford (née Gardner; February 27, 1892 – September 17, 1967) was the mother of U.S. President Gerald Ford.

Early life and marriage

Dorothy Ayer Gardner was born in the small town of Harvard, Illinois, in 1892 to Levi Addison Gardner, a businessman and one-time mayor, and Adele Augusta Gardner (née Ayer).

There she married her first husband, wool trader Leslie Lynch King Sr. of Omaha, Nebraska, on September 7, 1912. She met him while she was a student at Wellesley College, as he was the charming brother of her roommate.

The couple returned to Omaha, King's home. They lived at first with his parents at their Victorian mansion at 3202 Woolworth Avenue. His parents were wealthy banker and businessman Charles Henry King and the former Martha Alicia Porter, both from Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Soon after her marriage, Dorothy discovered that her husband was abusive. In Omaha, she further discovered he was a liar and an alcoholic, but she also found out that she was pregnant. With the support of his parents, she stayed with her husband until the birth of their son, who was born on July 14, 1913, and named Leslie Lynch King Jr. A few days after the birth, her husband brandished a butcher knife while threatening to kill her, their child, and the infant's nurse; the police had to be called to restrain him.

Second marriage and family Three years later, Dorothy met Grand Rapids businessman Gerald Rudolff Ford. After their marriage on February 1, 1917, they called her first son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr., although he was not formally adopted by his stepfather. In 1935, Gerald Ford Jr. legally changed his name in honor of his stepfather, the only father he really had. At the time, Ford adopted a more conventional spelling of his middle name. Later Ford recounted that his mother insisted he learn to control his temper, one he seemed to have inherited from his biological father.

Ford was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

She died in 1967 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is buried with her second husband at Woodlawn Cemetery in Grand Rapids.