By Shallom Kimanzi
WKTV Intern
Much like Gerald R. Ford never planned to be president, author Lindsey McDivitt never planned to write a book about the 38th President of the United States.
“Staff from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum approached Sleeping Bear Press asking about the possibility of a picture book about the president,” McDivitt said in a WKTV interview. “Sleeping Bear Press asked me if I’d be interested. It was a fascinating opportunity to learn more about him.”
The first-ever picture children’s book about the life of President Gerald R. Ford, “Truth and Honor: The President Ford Story” was released Tuesday, July 14, as part of the virtual birthday celebration hosted by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. The book is intended for children between the ages 6-10.
McDivitt, an award-winning author, has lived in Michigan for seven years, and found the opportunity to write about Ford a chance to discover more about the only Michigan resident to become the U.S. President.
“I was astonished to learn that Gerald Ford was born Leslie King Jr.,” McDivitt said. “His mother left his violent birth father when Jerry was just 16 days old in a dramatic escape and later filed for divorce. This was 1916, so she would have had to be a very brave young woman. She married Gerald Ford Senior a few years later and he became Jerry’s much loved step-father.
“The values Gerald Ford Junior gained from his step-father and mother were integral to the caring and honorable man he became.”
McDivitt first researched Ford’s presidency, noting she was only a teenager when Ford was in office, which was from 1974-1977. He is the only president not to be elected, but taking over the nation’s highest office when President Richard Nixon resigned. It was time, according to McDivitt, when “Americans desperately needed to trust their leaders again. I hope readers will learn why he was the right man for that difficult job.”
Ford was born 1913 in Nebraska. His mother would bring him to Grand Rapids where they lived with his grandparents. In the 1930s, Ford attended the University of Michigan, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and he became a U.S. Congressman in 1948.
“I found it striking that in his 25 years in Congress, Jerry Ford’s votes supported Americans of all races, religions, gender and abilities, often in opposition to his own much loved Republican party,” McDivitt said.
Being this is a picture book for children, McDivitt said she wanted to focus on stories that would interest children such as Ford’s athleticism and his frightening experience aboard an aircraft carrier.
“And many will identify with his challenges as a child who felt different,” she said, noting that Ford had a stutter in elementary school that made him very self-conscious.
In anticipation of the book release, The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation released a virtual mini online series, “ Truth and Honor: A Sneak Peek with Author Lindsey McDivitt,” to give a brief glance to what inspired McDivitt’s new book. “Truth and Honor: The President Ford Story,” will be released as a hard-cover book and as an e-book by Sleeping Bear Press, an independent children’s book publisher based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Amazon.
“I believe the story of Gerald Ford’s formative years and his many decades of service to our country highlights some of America’s bedrock values,” McDivitt said. “Values like hard work, perseverance, integrity and caring for others. Millions of Americans face difficult times right now. Our sense of community is being tested. And like Jerry Ford in the Navy in World War II, many of us see how important our nation’s democracy is to the rest of the world.”
