Gerald Ford Funeral Items

These notes and hand drawings with notations are part of a 10-page instruction pamphlet that was given to participants who took part in President Gerald R. Ford’s funeral service at the Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 3, 2007. They list the order of service and all the individuals participating in the program. They also detail the music, the tributes and instructions for entering and exiting the cathedral. The event was broadcast by a pool of photojournalists, comprised of both network and local camera crews. Access to the funeral was by invitation only. The grey and purple tickets were for different levels of access. (They were non-transferable and required a photo ID.)

Although the funeral was broadcast live, the church was packed to capacity for the event. Many dignitaries were present, including former President Jimmy Carter, who gave one of the tributes during the service. I manned the center, head-on camera inside the church. I kept my instructions after the funeral and retrieved the two tickets after everyone had left.

Jan 3, 2007: Military color guard escorting presidential casket of Gerald R. Ford out of Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids Michigan upon the conclusion of his memorial service in front of a packed congregation. (Credit: Rex Larsen/ Pool)

In 1976 I covered President Ford as a freelancer when he appeared at the Glendale, California City Hall during the Bicentennial election year. I grew up in the city and did work with the Glendale News-Press. (Lyn Nofzinger, who was Ronald Reagan’s press secretary when he was governor of California and followed him to the White House for a brief period, did his college internship at the Glendale News-Press and worked there for an additional eight years).

Oct 7, 1976: President Gerald R. Ford on a campaign swing in front of the Glendale City Hall with city dignitaries. I was the still cameraman on the right of the presidential podium, working as a freelancer, with credentials acquired from the Glendale News-Press. A former News-Press employee, Lyn Nofzinger, helped get me a credential. At the time, Nofzinger (former press secretary for California Gov. Ronald Reagan and future senior advisor to President Reagan) was helping President Ford on his 1976 presidential bid.

Although I was excited to have the opportunity to cover a sitting president up close, I didn’t realize at the time that President Ford had a personal connection to Glendale. When the president was born on July 14, 1913, his name was Leslie King, Jr. His mother, Dorothy Gardner, had married Leslie Lynch King, Sr., a man who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. The couple had a troubled marriage, but Dorothy managed to give birth to a healthy son. Shortly after the birth, King threatened the mother and baby with a butcher’s knife. Sixteen days later, the new mother moved back in with her parents and divorced Leslie King. After a few years, she married Gerald R. Ford, a Grand Rapids, Michigan businessman. They changed their son’s name to Gerald R. Ford, Jr.

Gerald R. Ford Jr.’s biological father, Leslie Lynch King Sr.

Leslie King, Sr. never paid alimony or child support. King only saw Ford one more time before dying in 1941. Ironically, King was buried in Glendale at Forest Lawn, not very far from where President Ford was speaking when I covered him in 1976.

Gerald Ford speaking in Glendale (Credit: David Rust)