Happy Birthday, Betty Ford

In California it's still Sunday so there is time to send heartfelt good wishes on her 89th birthday to Betty Ford, hospitalized after surgery and undoubtedly still grieving for her husband who died the day after last Christmas.

Mrs Ford, unlike other First Ladies, came to the White House unexpectedly and never stopped being herself, behaving naturally unlike some of the others who could have passed for inflatable life-sized dolls permanently positioned to stare adoringly at their husbands.

Among the memories I cherish is of her telling a reporter that the media was asking all kinds of personal questions, except how often she slept with her husband, and she might as well answer that, too.

"As often as I can," she said.

Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson, who is 95 and very frail now, would not have been out of place in America's pioneer days. I don't know if they make them like that any more, but they should.