THE PRESIDENCY
Betty Ford's favorite picture is Boys Crabbing, a muted oil by 19th century Genre Painter William Ranney ("I understand boys," the mother of three of them says). Mrs. William Howard Taft, whose portrait is on the wall of the Grand Staircase, is her idea "of what a First Lady should look like."
Mrs. Ford is captivated by the beautiful features of Fanny Kemble, the London actress whose picture hangs in the Queen's Room. "She is," says Mrs. Ford about Miss Kemble, "the prettiest lady in the White House. I wonder whose friend she was?" White House Curator Clem Conger has...