Palm Desert Church Remembers Betty Ford

Funeral services for the First Lady of the Valley are set for Tuesday.

The late Betty Ford passed away on Friday, but her legacy will live on.

The parking lot at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert was filled as it typically is on a Sunday morning.

Church members slowly made the walk to take their seat in the pews.

But several people also took the time to stroll down memory lane and relived their encounters with the late Betty Ford.

“She’s wonderful,” said Gretchen Landers, a longtime church member. “She’s beautiful, and I saw both of the Fords here — they came a lot.”

“She wasn’t what I would call an extrovert,” said Liz Borson, who once shook hands with the Fords. “But she was very very nice — always. Gracious.”

Ford touched the lives of many members of her congregation, even if her interaction with them was brief.

“Many years ago, when she had breast cancer, I had it after she did, and she called me in the hospital,” said Lucy Karns. “She encouraged me, you know, that she had had it and that everything was going to be alright.”

Ron Borson and his wife Liz are from Sun City.

Both have going to St. Margaret’s for 20 years and saw the former first lady and president several times.

“They were smiling and very affable,” said Ron Borson.

“At church, you usually give the peace, where you turn around and shake hands, and they were right behind us and that day they were going to skip the peace, and I thought, ‘No way, I want to shake hands with them,'” said Liz Borson. “So, I shook hands with Betty Ford and Gerald Ford too.”

Gretchen Landers said Ford’s legacy will most likely be that of the addiction rehabilitation center she founded years ago in Rancho Mirage.

Ford helped thousands of people from all over the world.

Landers said her death is sad, “but, you know, 93, I think, and she had a beautiful life. She made quite an impact — especially in the desert.”