Betty Firth

“The First Lady”, a PBS dramatic series, highlights the lives and political roles of Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama. These smart, strong-willed women had definite ideas about what they wanted to do (and what they didn’t want to do) as political wives, and eventually as First Ladies. Husbands, chiefs of staff, and party officials all tried to keep them quiet, exhorting them to comport themselves as proper First Ladies, but these women refused to be silenced, managed, or manipulated–and the country benefitted. To their credit, all three of their husbands had chosen to marry strong women and knew that it was pretty fruitless to try to keep them quiet.
The relationship of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt was a complicated one. FDR’s infidelity shattered the marital trust. They developed a celibate partnership–described as “an armed truce” by a relative, in which Eleanor had significant influence politically and personally.
Roosevelt and his team of pols tried to get Eleanor to shut up, to no avail. She recognized her own need to have meaningful work to use her talents and influence to create positive change. When she asked what position she would have in FDR’s first administration, his chief of staff, said, “First Lady.” Her response was, “That is not a position; that’s my situation.”
As First Lady, she was expected to look good, be a charming hostess, keep her opinions quiet, and do what the men told her to do. Not likely. She was FDR’s help-mate, tending to him when he was paralyzed, supporting his decision to remain in politics, campaigning for him, and later serving as ambassador, human rights advocate, and a popular voice for the common worker. She was the first First Lady to have a secretary, and her activism changed the role of the First Lady ever after. She has been memorialized with a statue in Riverside Park in Manhattan, a coin in the 2023 American Women’s History quarter series, and multiple books and movies.
Betty Ford struck me as unremarkable when Gerald Ford was president, so I found it interesting to learn about her personal growth. She filled the role of a Congressional wife, but she counted the days until Gerald would be free to move to California and build their dream home. History intervened, and with the resignations of Agnew and then Nixon, Betty reluctantly became Second Lady, then First Lady. Not happy with her life, Betty got hooked on alcohol and prescription drugs. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974, she spoke up, encouraging women to get checkups to increase the chance of early detection. She said, “I came to recognize more clearly the power of the woman in the White House. Not my power, but the power of the position, a power which could be used to help.”
Gerald was very supportive of her and her right to speak up, but other politicos tried to silence her. Her approval ratings were about double of those of her husband when he lost the election in 1976 to Jimmy Carter. After years of denial about her disease of alcoholism and drug addiction, her family staged an intervention in 1978. She went into treatment and then helped bring opioid and alcohol addiction into the light along with the recognition that a network of resources is needed for recovery. She helped found the Betty Ford Center for treatment in Rancho Mirage, California.
The story of Michelle and Barack Obama might be the archetype of two brilliant, capable, strong people who managed to find each other and create an interdependent team to pursue their goals in life. Michelle showed her strong will even as a child, and she graduated from Harvard law school in spite of the odds against her. She was a force to be reckoned with; Barack made no secret of his respect for her strength in interviews and his own writings. She did not hesitate to call Barack on his actions if he was not living up to her high ideals. Opposition just made her more stubborn and stronger in her will to do what she felt was right.
She described herself as a mother first and resented the intrusion on her family’s privacy and safety that came with public life. At the same time, she recognized the importance of the values the Obamas brought to the White House, and her work focused on the importance of education, nutrition, and physical activity. She insisted on talking honestly about racism and poverty in the country when Barack and political advisors were asking her for political reasons to soft pedal what she was saying.
All three of the First Ladies received apologies from the men who had tried to squelch them along with acknowledgements that their honesty with the American public had gained them respect and popularity, which strengthened their husbands’ administrations; at times they even gained a higher level of approval and trust than their husbands had.
The 10-episode PBS series struck me as very timely as we anticipate the upcoming Trump administration with its ingrown misogyny and disrespect for many categories of people that these First Ladies stood up for. Why would so many voters seemingly approve of overt actions of disrespect and hatred? Who will call to account this self-absorbed man driven by a bottomless need for approval and endless greed for power and money?
Real men — those who have no need to huff and puff and blow the house down — have no problem acknowledging the strength and capabilities of women, showing appreciation for everything women accomplish in their families, communities, and work places.
Garrison Keillor called Minnesota the place where the women are strong and the men are good-looking, and I have met many remarkable women throughout the state. I’d like to honor two powerful, local women who have contributed so much through their work and indomitable spirits. There cannot be very many people in Ely who don’t know Julie Hignell, who recently retired from her position as Executive Director of Ely Community Resource (ECR). It would be hard to find a more effective, generous, kind, cheerful person in her extensive work with students, staff, and volunteers while operating within the constraints of nonprofit guidelines and the continual need for fundraising. Wishing you the best in your retirement, Julie!
Kap Wilkes is another Ely nonprofit champion, who has brought her skills for strategic organizational development to Well Being Development. She helped the organization through a transitional time, then continued to provide guidance as the organization grew stronger and its vision expanded, culminating, in part, with the opening of the permanent home for Northern Lights Clubhouse and the first sober house in Ely. With her outstanding skills in grant writing and her ability to bring people together to find solutions, she has inspired many to help make this vision a reality. Kudos and thanks to you, Kap!