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This file contains interview concerning her activities as head of the women's division of
Gerald Ford's 1948 congressional campaign and her contacts with the Fords
thereafter. Includes comments on Jack Stile work as head of the campaign.
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1536968
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Clark, Kay - Interview, 1/28/80
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1536968
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Clark, Kay - Interview, 1/28/80
description
This file contains interview concerning her activities as head of the women's division of
Gerald Ford's 1948 congressional campaign and her contacts with the Fords
thereafter. Includes comments on Jack Stile work as head of the campaign.
citationUrl
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Grand Rapids Oral Histories Collection
Interview Transcripts
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Grand Rapids (Mich.)
Presidents
Congressional elections
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1948-12-31
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Scanned from Grand Rapids Oral History Collection at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (Box 1)
RECORDS AND ARCHIVES ADMINISTRATION
Gerald R. Ford Library
NATIONAL 1985
1000 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2114
KAY CLARK
Oral history interview concerning her friendship with Gerald
and Betty Ford, her activities as head of the women's
division of Ford's 1948 campaign, and her contacts with the
Fords thereafter.
A Presidential Library Administered by the National Archives and Records Administration
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE
GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY
Legal Agreement Pertaining to the Oral History Interview of Mrs. Collins C.
Clark.
In accordance with the provisions of Chapter 21 of Title 44, United
States Code, and subject to the terms and conditions hereinafter set
forth, I, Mrs. Collins C. Clark of Grand Rapids, MI, do hereby give,
donate and convey to the United States of America all my rights, title, and
interest in the tape recording and transcript of a personal
interview conducted on January 28, 1980 at Grand Rapids, MI
and prepared for deposit in the Gerald R. Ford Library. This
assignment is subject to the following terms and conditions:
(1) The transcript shall be available for use by researchers
as soon as it has been deposited in the Gerald R. Ford Library.
(2) The tape recording shall be available to those researchers
who have access to the transcript.
(3) I hereby assign to the United States Government all
copyright I may have in the interview transcript and tape.
(4) Copies of the transcript and the tape recording may be
provided by the Library to researchers on request.
(5) Copies of the transcript and tape recording may be
deposited in or loaned to institutions other than the Gerald R.
Ford Library.
Mrs. Colluis C. Clark
Donor
Date
may 21, 1980
acting States
Archivist Jane of E.O'heils the United
Date
June 5, 1980
RECEIVED NOV 10 190
INTERVIEW WITH
Mrs. Collins C. Clark
BY
Dr. Thomas F. Soapes
Oral Historian
on
January 28, 1980
for
GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY
This interview is being conducted with Mrs. Collins Clark in her
home in Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 29, 1980. The interviewer
is Dr. Thomas Soapes. Present for the interview are Dr. Soapes and
Mrs. Clark.
SOAPES:
Are you a native of Grand Rapids?
CLARK:
No, I was born in Lake Forest, Illinois. But, yes,
you might say I was a native of Grand Rapids because we came here
when I was five and were here until I was a senior in high school,
and then we left. I went on with my profession of dance teaching
in Toledo, Ohio with the conservatory there, and then from there to
Chicago. I was there for about ten years and then came back to
Grand Rapids and took over the senior work at the Travis Studio
from which I had graduated and also the office, business and so
forth, for Miss Travis. And that's when I met Betty for the first
time. She was a student at the studio and was my pupil.
SOAPES:
This would have been during her high school years?
CLARK:
This was during her high school years, yes. She
had graduated the spring before I came back to take over the office
and the senior work and also some of the graduates, of course, of
which she was one. Most of her work with me was in ballroom dancing.
Miss Travis had one of the officials from the program at Bennington
College visit the studio, and she and one of the other students in
the class were chosen to attend the summer sessions in dance. And
that was where she became so interested in the Martha Graham system
of dancing and went on to New York and procured a job there in
modeling, and in that way paid for her lessons with Martha and
became part of the in-town company. So when she came back to Grand
Rapids, she interested me in that form of dance. We had had a little
of it here, but not to the extent that Martha went into it.
We got
together a group of gals who were also interested and Betty directed
us, and we appeared several places here in town.
SOAPES:
So you had a reversal of roles there: She became
the teacher.
CLARK:
She became the teacher, right - - and excellent, too.
Of course, just being able to watch her do these things with such
ease, I think it inspired everybody. So we had quite an interested
group. In fact, we had several people who would have liked to have
been in on the group, and we had to pick and choose.
SOAPES:
When you first met her, what traits stood out?
CLARK:
I think perhaps the fact that she was able to be
mature inasmuch as she could make her own decisions, and yet at
the same time she was every bit the eighteen year old, seventeen,
eighteen year old that you would expect a young girl of her beauty
and grace to be. I had had her in mind from the beginning of
meeting her and seeing how she operated around the studio to
take my place at this private camp in Wisconsin as the dancing
instructor, which she did become after a short while.
SOAPES:
What was the name of that camp?
CLARK:
Camp Bryn Afon. It's a Welsh pronunciation. It's
a private camp that was owned by a Detroit woman and extremely
-2-
exclusive, I might say. And Betty did a very beautiful job as an
instructress up there for a couple of years, and then came back to
Grand Rapids and became involved more and more with her fashion
coordinating and that sort of thing. And, of course, it wasn't
too long before she and Jerry were an item. From there on out you
know the story.
SOAPES:
Did you know her during her first marriage?
CLARK:
Yes, I did. I knew her first husband also.
SOAPES:
I know, of course, that the break up of a marriage
is an unpleasant affair, but did she talk to you about her domestic
problems?
CLARK:
Yes, I was well aware of them. In fact I was with
her a couple of times when there were some unfortunate things that
had to be discussed and she wanted a little back up. It was just as
she said in her book: They were very young and he was very ambitious
and the sky was the limit as far as he was concerned. But not having
the sky left Betty a great deal to do in order to support this ambition
of his, which was not right for a young gal that wanted a family and a
staid, dependable husband. But it was a friendly separation. It was
for the best anyway you looked at it.
SOAPES:
But you were the one around her to be a dry shoulder
when it was necessary?
CLARK:
Yes, right. The mother figure.
SOAPES:
Did you participate in local politics?
-3-
CLARK:
I did not until Betty asked me at this particular
time if I would be interested or if I would, "Please do!" I don't
believe she even bothered to ask me if I would be interested. She
just said, "Please would you be the head of the women's division
for Jerry's campaign." If was, of course, during that time of
the year when I had no studio activities and I was able to do so.
But I went in there like a complete novice; I had never been
politically minded at all.
SOAPES:
For the record, I'll note your name at that time was
DeFreest.
CLARK:
DeFreest, right.
SOAPES:
Those who will see your name on letterheads will know
that your name is now Clark, and that you are the same person. What
kind of work did you do? You became head of the women's committee.
CLARK:
I gathered together all the female population that I
could lay my hands on, Republican, that I could coerce or otherwise
interest in working for Jerry, such as sending out letters. And we
did sort of, I don't know what they call that offhand, where you write
to ten of your firends in town or surrounding area that would be
supporting Jerry in the campaign and they write to ten of theirs.
So it was a sort of an on-going affair.
SOAPES:
Sort of a political chain letter.
CLARK:
Right, that's exactly it. Jack Stiles, who was the
head of the entire campaign, the overall head, had ten ideas a day.
-4-
And we'd get in the office and immediately Jack would sit down and
away we'd go. He bounced ideas off of us. Of course, my being such
a novice I thought that everything he said was, "Oh, yes this is
exactly what we're going to do," until somebody said, "Just listen.
You'll find out that one or two of those things will come true. The
rest of them you can just bury, or forget." But, as time went on, I
became, of course, most interested, most particularly because of
Jerry's character. There wasn't anyway that you could look at that
young man and not know that every word he said came right from his
heart. There was no falsifying or no putting on of any false front.
Anything he talked on he knew about - - it was either through personal
contact or through extensive reading and studying all angles of govern-
ment. And the very fact that Arthur Vandenberg had chosen him above
quite a number of young promising politicans, already politicans, to
get into the fifth district, representative in Congress, it meant a
lot. And I think that most of the people who worked for him - - I
would say all of the people - - felt the same way about Jerry: there
was no pretense there. We were most pleased to do anything we could
to further his career, and did.
SOAPES:
As you were directing the work of the women's committee
and you were finding these ten friends here and ten friends there, were
you looking for any particular type of person to work with you?
CLARK:
Well, of course, we wanted those who were interested
enough to not just hit a one time setup that we might have advanced
through the office and those who were more or less women of note in
-5-
the town or towns that would be listened to if they sent out any form
of letter or in telephone calls or anything of the sort, they wouldn't
be ignored. It wouldn't be one of those, "Oh, yes, um-hum, yes," and
forget it. So that they were more or less the women of the town who
were well-known. But the one who really went on with it and did the
most and is still doing it was a young married woman that came here
to town with her husband and hadn't been here more than just a few
months. We had run into them, my husband and myself, through our love
of boats, and they had purchased a boat knowing little or nothing about
how to operate it. And through our stepping in there and helping them
out I was asked by Carol Josephson if she couldn't do something down
there in Jerry's campaign in the hut, someway or other. And I said,
"Surely, come on down. You can start out by stuffing envelopes.
Everybody starts out that way." She now is the head of the state
Federation of Republican Women. So you can see through all of these
years, the years 1948 to 1980 and on, Carol has kept it up. So
that anything that she asks me to do I feel obligated, more or less,
and I'm very happy to do it for her.
SOAPES:
You mentioned the famous Quonset hut. Can you describe
the interior of that, how it was set up, what it looked like when you
stepped in the door?
CLARK:
We had a couple of card tables in the front there with
some chairs around, and I was usually stationed more or less just inside
the door, so that anybody stepping in that we didn't know personally,
that came in with wide eyes and wonderment, I could introduce myself
-6-
and welcome them to the place, get their names and so forth and
find out what they were particularly interested in - - if it was
helping us out or they wanted to meet Jerry or Jack or whoever
was in there or just wandered in to look it over. We had a per-
manent secretary and several phones. Jerry had a cubicle for his
office, and Jack had one for his. It was just set up in very
light furniture, you know, typical Quonset hut, just exactly as
you remember the appearance of a Quonset hut. It was a small
building.
SOAPES:
About how big was it on the interior?
CLARK:
Well, truthfully I couldn't give you the dimensions,
but it wasn't exactly - - oh, I don't know, what we say, twenty feet
long. And, I believe, it looked like about twenty feet wide, too.
SOAPES:
It was very plainly furnished.
CLARK:
Oh, yes, yes. There was no attempt to do any fanciness.
Jerry's picture was painted on the front of the building, and it was
done very nicely. Then it said, "FORD FOR CONGRESS" on the side.
It was after he had been in Congress that he had the buses and so
forth and used to take off out in the county. One day during the
campaign I drove somebody else's car with a blaring horn and the
record going and a live promoter sitting next to me all around the
downtown area of Grand Rapids. This was towards the end, towards
the fatal day of the voting. That was the way we used to get around.
Of course, any of the county people that wanted him to come out and
-7-
speak, which was constantly, we'd see that transportation was
furnished. But we had everything at our finger tips as far as
volunteering of material and that sort of thing was concerned, and
we were very happy with our help through donations also. Of course,
we had quite a number of people who had known Jerry's mother and
father, and they had known Jerry since he was knee-high, and all
of his brothers. So they were very happy to chip in a few dollars
here and there. It did help a great deal.
SOAPES:
So getting volunteer help wasn't a problem?
CLARK:
No, it truly wasn't. We had a cross-section of
every area of the town and the county, and we really felt that
we were well represented in every field of business and arts so
forth and so on.
SOAPES:
What about representation from the ethnic groups
of the town?
CLARK:
We had great representation. The black community
was behind Jerry one hundred percent. And we had some very wonder-
ful people that used to offer their help and did help us. Another
thing about Jerry, a plus, there was no color line and there never
had been from the time he was in school right straight through. In
fact, one of his friends in school during, as I understand, I didn't
know him at that time, but during his primary grades was a black boy,
and he was very close.
SOAPES:
I wasn't aware of that. What about some of the other
-8-
ethnic groups here in Grand Rapids, the Polish community and the
Lithuanian community that were supposedly under the thumb of [Frank D.]
McKay?
CLARK:
Well, McKay didn't figure into this setup really as
much as you might imagine, knowing a little of the history of Grand
Rapids and how in future years there would be some trouble. But in
that instance, no. They seemed to all get behind Jerry. I think
because they all realized that here was an honest, true-speaking
young man that was going to do something in Congress for this area.
And it wasn't that Mr. [Bartel J.] Jonkman had not done things in
former years, but it was time for a change. And it couldn't have
come at a better time than when Jerry was able to step forward and
offer himself.
SOAPES:
So it is your recollection that the McKay image was
not a dominate one in this campaign?
CLARK:
No, no, not at all. I don't recall even discussing
that with anyone, truthfully. Because whatever axe McKay had to
grind didn't seem to come into what Jerry was representing. It might
have later, I don't know. As I say, I didn't go on. The only thing
I did do after Jerry was elected to Congress was take out his petitions
and have them signed as he was re-elected. But outside of that, politics
was out of my life. I just stuck to my dancing, my teaching.
SOAPES:
We were talking about well-known people in the
community. Of course, the Ford family was reasonably well-known,
weren't they?
-9-
CLARK:
Very well-known, I should say. Dorothy and Gerald,
Senior were very active. Gerald, Senior had a group that I worked
for that got volunteers for various businesses here in town. Of
course, this being during the war, some of their people had long
gone or there was not money available and they needed people to
help. So we had typists and telephone operators and various types
of people in the business world that could offer some time. He
started this office going. I frankly can't remember the name of
it at the present time, but I became interested in that and went
down and supervised under this one gal who was the head of the whole
thing and did my stint on that for a few years while it was going.
But Dorothy, of course, was very active in many charitable organi-
zations and adored the children and most particularly would spend
her time with the children's organizations to help in whatever way
she could. And her dear darling grandchildren were the apple of
her eye.
SOAPES:
The activities on election day, can you recall how
you spent that election day? I'm talking about the primary when
he defeated Jonkman.
CLARK:
Yes, very well. We were, of course, sitting on edge.
The first part of the day - - just get over there and vote and try
to help out all you could. Be down at the hut and any calls that
were coming in, anyone that called and wanted transportation to
their voting place, we would see that they received it. We did
-10-
some phoning to various and sundry people just to jack them up,
be sure that there were no stones left unturned. And then that
evening we started to assemble over at Jack and Phoebe Stiles
because that was where we were going to hear all of the results.
It was all going to be the big gathering of all the people who
had worked so hard and had been living in each other's mouths
all those months. Of course, our spirits were way up there: we
were just sure, there wasn't any doubt - - that, of course, he
was going to be elected. Even though there was no doubt, nat-
urally we were all waiting for the final words. And when they
came, there was one wonderful roar of happiness. Right up to
the last minute, Jerry was out smiling and campaigning.
SOAPES:
You mentioned Jack Stiles as somebody who had ten
ideas a day. That suggests to me an individual who was very
energetic and was at the job, himself, all day long.
CLARK:
Yes, he was. I don't believe Jack ate, slept,
drank or lived anything but the Ford campaign for Congress during
the whole while he was involved, which was from the very beginning.
And he firmly believed in every angle and was coming up with new
ones, as I say, ten new ones everyday, which was smart. It was
a good way to work, because as he bounced them off our ears, if
anyone had any addition to some particular thing that he had
thought might be a good way to go or if someone said, "Oh, no,
that isn't going to work out," because of this, that or the
-11-
other, he would listen. It would end up that we would be promoting
something that was instrumental and being of some help.
SOAPES:
So the campaign was run on sort of a consensus of those
who were in the leadership positions.
CLARK:
Yes, right, with Jack being the head of the whole thing,
and then Jerry, of course. None of this was ever done without it all
being presented to Jerry first, because he had his ideas too. He
didn't want to have some high-flying idea go out and traverse the
town and then it not be a success or have a lot of flack over it and
have it come back and sit in his lap, which was understandable.
Because a bunch of eager beavers such as we were could get into a
sticky situation that we might not realize at the time, step on
somebody's toes and they'd shriek and yell. Jerry, as I say, had
the final say SO. But there were very few things that were ever
presented that Jerry objected to. He went on his way doing things
that he could do best, which was speaking before the various groups
that were gotten together throughout the county, not only Kent County,
of course, but Ottawa too at that time. Then we went on our way
doing our own jobs.
SOAPES:
Did he ever attend these morning sessions?
CLARK:
Yes. We had several meetings where he would talk to
us and a little encouragement was given. If somebody looked as though
they weren't getting their particular job done or they were getting
some flack from some angle. Yes, we were always able to get to Jerry,
-12-
too, if in anyway we were worried about any particular thing or an
overall subject. But, no, it wasn't a case where he was hiding in
the back room or letting Jack handle everything.
SOAPES:
But generally the suggestions coming from your group
would go through Jack Stiles to him.
CLARK:
Right.
SOAPES:
Do you remember any ideas that you as a group decided
to do that just failed miserably?
CLARK:
Not off hand, truly, because these were hashed over
so well and everybody had their two cents worth to put in that I think
it got to that point, knowing Jerry and Jerry's character and so forth,
there wasn't very much that you could come up with that would be far
out or something that would be knocked down by presenting it to the
public in general. You knew just about how far we could go, and we
knew that principally because Jerry being the man that he was. None
of us that worked for him and worked for this campaign were interested
in doing any far-out little tricks.
SOAPES:
There was no dirty tricks or - -
CLARK:
No, no way. He wouldn't have stood for a second of
that in the first place, and none of us that worked for him were
interested in doing that. And if there was anyone in that group
you can bet they didn't last very long. And I can't recall anybody
offhand, myself - - of course that's so many years back. No, every-
one that was there was determined that this was the way that things
-13-
were going to go - - on an honest basis.
SOAPES:
One of the things that frequently happens in any
organization is that there are sometimes some personality conflicts
or somebody gets mad and has to leave. Did you have any episodes
of that in this campaign?
CLARK:
No, I don't remember a single one. If they came in
to work and they found out that they couldn't put in that much time
or they weren't that interested politically and they might have
thought - - they don't need me, they've got all of these other
people and there's no doubt in the world that Jerry's going to be
elected - - then they would just step out. But I never had any
occasion to witness any anger, any disgust, or any disagreement
with our policy. Perhaps there might have been something, but if
there was I'm not aware of it, and it certainly couldn't have been
very important if I didn't hear about it.
SOAPES:
One of the criticisms that was leveled at Ford after
he was well-known on the national scene was that he was such a lousy
speechmaker. Did this ever come up in the campaign for Congress?
CLARK:
Well, the one thing that we used to keep saying to
him, and whenever we sat and listened to him speak, we kept praying
he wouldn't use his hands. He was a great one for emphasizing
everything with his hand motions. We used to suggest all kinds of
things to keep his hands quiet - - çlasp them in the back; grab hold
of the lecturn or whatever it is you are speaking before; stick them
-14-
in your pockets but not obviously so that they can tell you're
standing there with your hands in your pockets. But keep your
hands out of the action. Let them concentrate on your speech,
your mouth and your general appearance in that fashion. And he
did, as time went on, which was natural, and as all of us saw
when he got into the presidency, as time went on and he spoke
so frequently and you would see him so frequently, he did learn
to keep those hands quiet. He learned a little bit in the be-
ginning but not as much as we - - we hopped on him so often the
poor fellow, I think he got a little annoyed after a while - -
"What are hands made for?"
SOAPES:
Did you ever just flat rehearse him on a speech?
CLARK:
I didn't. I don't know whether Jack did or not, it
could have been, could easily have been. Probably Betts [Betty Ford]
might have - - he might have rehearsed in front of her for all I know.
Because, of course, she being a fashion co-ordinator, she knew how
to teach movement. She had to speak, announce fashions that were
being shown during the shows, and she might have, I don't know.
We never discussed that, but, could be. Somebody might have stepped
in there and said, "Jerry, how would you like to have a little
coaching?" One of the ones who could have done it very nicely
would have been Cal [Mrs. Paul] Goebel because of course, she
spoke, she wrote a column, and she gave book reviews and so forth.
She could have helped out there and was a very close friend
-15-
of Dorothy and Jerry Sr., both she and Paul, I mean Senior. But
as far as I know, no I don't recall that there was anyone just
willy nilly sitting down there saying, "Jerry, keep your hands quiet."
He always had a very forceful manner of speaking, and I think it has
just grown with his experience.
SOAPES:
Do you remember any feeling of frustration on the
part of the campaign management that his speaking was not turning
on a crowd, wasn't getting the job done?
CLARK:
As far as the campaign was concerned, no, I don't
think so, because they were so delighted to see this young, honest,
open-faced, intelligent man stepping into this position where he
had a chance to be elected fifth district representative in
Congress. I don't believe there was anything derogatory in their
acceptance of him, thinking that he was a poor speaker. I think
that was sort of as time went on after he got into Congress or
perhaps not so much when he was just a congressman but as he
became more prominent and then the vice-presidency came up and
then the presidency. I think that those who were not Ford
backers who were inclined to say, "He is no speaker." Well, I'd
rather listen to Jerry hesitate and give a speech than listen to
the most oily tongued politician get up there and know every word
and never miss a beat and then wonder afterwards, what was that
he said?
SOAPES:
How did the local press react to his campaign?
-16-
CLARK:
Very well, very well. He got very good coverage,
both on the radio and in the paper. We had two papers at that time,
we had the Grand Rapids Herald and the Grand Rapids Press. So he had
a chance, two shots, plus, of course, the small-town papers in the
surrounding areas that were interested in his campaign. And they
all were, naturally, because Jonkman had been in for some while and
here at last was something to look forward to and they could delve
into it, and they did. They didn't hesitate in the least. They
got every inch of publicity they could out of that.
SOAPES:
Then after Ford was elected, he had the job of keeping
his ties back here. How do you recall him doing that?
CLARK:
He used to come home every once in a while. And, of
course, during the recess of Congress, he and Betty would come in
and stay here. They would be here during the recess, and he would
travel out into the counties and kept in touch with everybody. He
had a phenomenal memory for people and their names; it was astounding.
He had evidently made up his mind that he wasn't going to be one of
those kind that would meet somebody and the name would go in one ear
and out the other. He had ways of remembering. I don't know how he
did it. But they would be around for the time of the congressional
recess. Those were the times when he would go out in the county or
go visit groups. And he had this bus that they would man; so he was
able to meet all of those engagements. There were many people who
were most interested in hearing what he had to say, what was going on
-17-
up there in Washington. And that was the one thing about Jerry
that I've always said and everyone else that I know of that favors
him, and they are of course legion here in this area. He was there
at the sessions of Congress, and if he by any chance could not be
there he saw to it that he knew exactly what went on in every session.
He was an avid reader - - took all the newspapers. I swear, I don't
know how he got through them all. And he had a staff that would cut
out and reserve the papers for him 80 that he could read anything.
There was no phase of government that he didn't get into and at
least be able to know, and if he didn't know he didn't hesitate
to say, "I don't know all about that that I should, but I certainly
will look into it and see that you get your answers." You could
write to him and ask him to do anything for you, and he was right
on it. You'd get a letter back in very short order. Occasionally,
when they would find out in later years that I had been the campaign
women's committee head, during his initial voting into Congress, I
would get some snide remark passed. I would always say, "If you
want to know how he stands on that particular subject that you are
interested in and you think that he is against that, or whatever
your thoughts are on him, you don't know him, so why don't you write
him a letter and I'll assure you, you will get the answer just exactly
as he thinks it out." And I had several people come to me and say,
"I was dumbfounded - - such a wonderful letter and he explained things
that I actually didn't know were true, and I was blaming him because
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he wasn't representing this particular thing that I was interested
in. So that always made me feel good.
SOAPES:
Getting back to the campaign for a minute. Did he
make any special pitch to women or to women's issues? I know they
weren't as prominent then as they are now but was there any effort
then?
CLARK:
No, not other than hoping that we would be interested
and in continuing to support things that would include women. He
was always most interested in seeing that women played a role in
government. Of course in later years it was, as you say, much more
prominent a question and an issue. But Jerry never pooh-poohed any
of that and was very anxious, as I say, that women find a part in
government because there was much that a woman could do that might
be even more appealing, naturally, to the rest of the women than
anyone would, offhand, think about.
SOAPES:
Were you the only woman who was on the campaign
committee?
CLARK:
Yes, as far as membership was concerned, I was it.
It didn't mean that there weren't gals in there working, but there
was never anybody that was officially women's committee except my-
self. And as I said, Carol Josephson was the one that turned out
to be the prize possession that we had.
SOAPES:
Even though your portfolio was the women's committee,
you were involved in a great many other things in the campaign, other
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than just the women's activities.
CLARK:
Oh, yes. For instance, there were letters written
by various prominent local citizens and of town people and so on,
and I would take care of that end of things often times and see to
it that the whole thing was put together into a package and then
perhaps all mailed out to whomever they were to go. But anything
that came up that had to do with the Quonset hut, because I was
down there from early morning, sometimes we'd open the place, until
whatever time we decided to cut out.
SOAPES:
So in addition to being head of the women's com-
mittee, you were really running the Quonset hut in its routine
operations.
CLARK:
That's right, that's right, yes. I was always there.
And if I wasn't, it was somebody that I had seen to it would be in my
place, because, of course the secretary is busier than a one-armed
paper hanger with a typewriter.
SOAPES:
How did your relationship with the Fords progress
after he went to Congress?
CLARK:
Well, of course, their first child Michael, who is
now the minister, I am his godmother. We kept in touch through
letters and phone calls and when they would come home we'd be
together. And then when Jack was born, of course, just two years
leter, it was as though they were twins. And 80 I treated them as
though they were twins - - when one got something the other one got
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the very same thing. I sent them a play set, I remember one time,
one of these outdoor play sets, the swings, and the bars, and the
slides and so forth. And I had written and told Betty to be sure
and tell the boys to be watching for the delivery man, and I guess
the poor kids sat out there on the curb expecting them to arrive
any minute. And, oh, they were thrilled to death. They had all
the children in the neighborhood over there and I guess that poor
thing really saw a lot of work. But Betty, of course, was always
interested when I put on my spring shows from the dancing school.
Once in a while she would manage to get home for it. And anything
that I was working on, choreographing or something of the sort for
my students for the show, and if she could help out in anyway through
Washington, pictures or things of the sort, little articles and ideas,
she would send them on to me. So I kept in touch with everything in
general and all of them. And they'd come here and Jerry would come
along and we would manage to shriek at each other and wish tender
love and care to the rest of the family. It's been a very close
association all these years and I've been very proud of the progress
that Jerry has made and that Betty has been such a wonderful mother
to those children. And it hasn't been easy with her illnesses.
SOAPES:
I was going to ask if you were able to watch how
she was able to adapt and react.
CLARK:
In the beginning when Jerry was away so much, you
know. And she was raising the children and she had that pinched
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nerve that developed in the back of her neck, I said that I knew
exactly how that happened - in a moment of anger probably - -
heaven knows what had gotten in there at that point to make her
angry. But all dancers feel that they can conquer anything, nothing
is too much for a dancer. If you wish to raise a window, the window
will raise, and if it doesn't raise you better watch out - - it's
liable to get kicked out. But I said, "I knew exactly what was
in your mind when you tried to raise that window. It wouldn't
at first so you gave it all you had and it was too much. It really
threw you because you were tightened up in the first place and that's
what snapped the old nerve." So the poor kid really had a dreadful
time, having to cope with the vagaries of the teenagers - - I mean
they were beautifully behaved children, but still they were human.
It wasn't easy; it wasn't easy at all. Betty and Jerry were so close,
and she needed that encouragement and that hand on her shoulder, and
it wasn't possible for him to be there all the while. She was for-
tunate that she had help. Clara [Powell] was a marvelous person
who stayed on there through thick and thin, and she had some very
fine neighbors who were like godparents almost, in some respects.
And then of course, Tom's wife, Janet Ford, was very, very close to
Betty and was there a good bit of the time too - - she traveled back
and forth. But I'd always get the birth announcements and the
pictures of the gathering of the clan and all of the cute little
things that happened and once in a while a childish scrawl. Mike
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always introduces me as, "This is my godmother who gave me a check
every birthday and every Christmas all those years." And he used
to tote up the years and say the exact number. Now he and Gayle
have a daughter and Gayle wrote me at Christmas and said, "Now
does it mean because Mike is your godson that Sarah is your great
goddaughter?" [Laughter]
SOAPES:
One thing you were telling before we started recording
was that this house has a history in Betty Ford's family.
CLARK:
Yes, right. Arthur Godwin, who formerly owned the
home, had married Betty's mother, Hortense Bloomer. So Betty was
living here before she married Jerry - - so it has a lot of history.
And it was just out of the blue that my husband bought the place.
He wasn't aware particularly at that time - - though he knew Betty
and Jerry, but not as well, of course, as I had -- of the connection
with the Fords.
SOAPES:
That's very interesting.
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