Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford

Dorothy Ayer Gardner King Ford (February 27, 1892 - September 17, 1967) was the mother of U.S. President Gerald Ford. Dorothy Gardner was born in the small town of Harvard, Illinois to Levi Addison Gardner, a businessman and one-time mayor, and Adele Augusta (Ayer) Gardner. There she married her first husband, wool trader Leslie Lynch King of Omaha, Nebraska, on September 7, 1912. She had met him while she was in 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,...