By Brad Dison

In September 1912, 21-year-old Dorothy Gardner married 30-year-old Leslie Lynch King. Dorothy was a “strikingly attractive brunette,” and King was “a tall, handsome, sandy-haired wool merchant.” Dorothy’s mother said she had never seen Dorothy as happy as when she and her new husband boarded the train for their honeymoon on the West Coast. Three weeks into their trip, the honeymoon bliss ended in the lobby of the elegant Multnomah Hotel in Portland, Oregon. King became enraged with Dorothy, called her vile names, slapped her in the face, and punched her in the head. They reconciled briefly and continued their honeymoon. While en route to California on a train, King flew into a rage and beat and kicked Dorothy. She lived in fear because she never knew when the next beating would come.

Dorothy was shocked by King’s actions. During their courtship, King had always treated her kindly and gently. He was from a prominent and wealthy family. King assured Dorothy that he would provide for her every need, lovingly and financially. When they returned from their extended honeymoon, Dorothy learned that King was deep in debt and had been stealing money from his father. Dorothy decided to leave King and was making preparations when she learned she was pregnant. King’s parents pleaded with her not to leave and reasoned that having a child would surely change their son’s troubled ways. Dorothy reluctantly agreed to stay.

In July 1913, Dorothy had a son in King’s parent’s mansion. At King’s insistence, they named the child Leslie Lynch King Jr. On the day after the child was born, King burst into the sickroom and berated Dorothy to the extent that her doctor intervened. He told King that Dorothy was quite ill and warned him to stop abusing her. The doctor was so concerned about King’s unpredictable nature toward his wife that he brought in a nurse to protect Dorothy and young Leslie. A few days later, King stormed into the sickroom armed with a butcher knife and threatened to kill Dorothy and young Leslie. The nurse called the police, who disarmed King and arrested him. Dorothy knew she had to leave King, but she knew to be discreet. Dorothy wrapped 16-day-old Leslie in a blanket and fled from the King mansion. After a fifteen-month volatile marriage, Dorothy divorced King.

Dorothy and young Leslie began a new life in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Two years later while Dorothy was at a church social, she met a man who asked if he could call on her. Dorothy was in no hurry to jump into another relationship. For a year, she learned all she could about the man. He was a paint salesman who quit school at 14 to provide for his widowed mother and sisters. He was scrupulously honest, a regular at church, and was kind to everyone who knew him. Most importantly, he was all that Leslie King Sr. was not. Finally, she agreed to let him call on her. In February 1916, he and Dorothy married in the church where they met. To ease the painful reminders of her first marriage, Dorothy changed her son’s name to that of her new husband. Dorothy’s son was 30 years old when he learned that his birth name was Leslie Lynch King Jr. To him, the name was meaningless. His name, the one Dorothy bestowed upon him in honor of the man she married, was Gerald R. Ford. Dorothy’s son eventually became the 38th President of the United States.

Sources:

1. The Omaha Evening Bee, August 21, 1912, p.8.

2. The Macon News, September 15, 1974, p.86.

3. James Cannon, Gerald Ford: An Honorable Life (University of Michigan Press, 2013), 40-42.