Former First Lady to dedicate husband's stamp

Former First Lady Betty Ford will join Postmaster General John E. Potter today to dedicate the stamp bearing her late husband's image in Palm Desert, Calif. A similar dedication ceremony will occur simultaneously in Grand Rapids, MI, at the President Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

“President Ford would be so grateful for the magnificent honor that the Postal Service has created in tribute to his decades of service to the American people,” said Mrs. Betty Ford in a USPS press release.

Mrs. Ford will be joined at the ceremony by her children Jack Ford and Susan Ford Bales and by several of her grandchildren. President and Mrs. Ford's son Michael Ford will dedicate the stamp in Grand Rapids. President Ford's brother, Richard A. Ford, is also scheduled to be at the Grand Rapids first day ceremony.

“We owe President Ford an immense debt of gratitude,” said Postmaster General Potter, “as a man who put his nation first; as a man who was guided by what he read in his heart, and as a man who succeeded in his goal to make this great government work for the good of all Americans.”

Stamp artist Michael J. Deas of Brooklyn Heights, NY, created the stamp under the direction of stamp designer Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, MD.

For more on Gerald Ford, click here.