Betty Ford, the pioneering former first lady who championed women's rights and founded the renowned Betty Ford Center substance abuse treatment program, has died at the age of 93. Mrs. Ford, born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer on April 8, 1918, in Chicago, Ill., was the wife of former President Gerald R. Ford, from whose White House she championed the Equal Rights Amendment and the legalization of abortion. Her own struggle with substance abuse and her resulting treatment gave rise to the Betty Ford Center, which was opened in Rancho Mirage, California in 1982, to provide substance abuse treatment services free of financial and medical barriers. The center also focused on removing the stigma associated with addiction. Mrs. Ford was the recipient of many awards and honors from universities and institutions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. She will be remembered for her outspoken nature and for her commitment to social causes, often before the mid-twentieth century zeitgeist allowed it. She touched the lives of many and will be dearly missed.