It will be interesting to see who the third one will be,
here is a list of this years deaths:
http://www.stiffs.com/recentdeaths.cfm
here is a list of this years deaths:
http://www.stiffs.com/recentdeaths.cfm
http://wfrv.com/topstories/topstories_story_227195601.html
Dec 26, 2006 10:59 pm US/Central
Former President Gerald Ford Dies
CBS News Interactive: About Gerald Ford
(AP) LOS ANGELES Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.
Details on his death Tuesday were not immediately available.
Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments -- including an angioplasty -- in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.
Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly-controlled and conspiratorial.
Ford was House minority leader when President Nixon chose him to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned, as vice president in 1973. Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.
When Gerald R. Ford took the presidential oath of office, he famously declared, "My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is over."
Ford had been the first vice president chosen under the terms of the 25th Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.
Ford spoke to CBS News in 2000 about that challenging time.
"People had lost faith in their government, there was disillusionment about public officials," he said. "That was a very very bad time in the history of the country."
When Spiro Agnew resigned the office of Vice President of the United States late in 1973, after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion, President Nixon was empowered by the 25th Amendment to appoint a new vice president.
Presumably, he needed someone who could work with Congress, survive close scrutiny of his political career and private life, and be confirmed quickly. He chose Gerald R. Ford, and following the most thorough background investigation in the history of the FBI, Ford was confirmed and sworn in on Dec. 6, 1973.
The specter of the Watergate scandal, the break-in at Democratic headquarters during the 1972 campaign and the ensuing cover-up by Nixon administration officials, hung over Ford's nine-month tenure as vice president.
When it became apparent that evidence, public opinion, and the mood in Congress were all pointing toward impeachment, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign from that office.
Ford became president not because he was popular with the American public, not because he campaigned for the job, but because of his character. His colleagues in Congress put him in the White House because he told the truth and kept his word.
Ford personified what Nixon was not: Ford was honest, he could be trusted.
Throughout 25 years in the House of Representatives, Ford had proved himself to be a man of integrity. It was for that integrity that the highest powers of Congress, Democratic and Republican, chose Ford to be vice president, knowing that Nixon's presidency was doomed.
Dec 26, 2006 10:59 pm US/Central
Former President Gerald Ford Dies
(AP) LOS ANGELES Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday. He was 93.
Details on his death Tuesday were not immediately available.
Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments -- including an angioplasty -- in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93. Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., about 130 miles east of Los Angeles.
Ford was an accidental president, Nixon's hand-picked successor, a man of much political experience who had never run on a national ticket. He was as open and straight-forward as Nixon was tightly-controlled and conspiratorial.
Ford was House minority leader when President Nixon chose him to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned, as vice president in 1973. Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.
When Gerald R. Ford took the presidential oath of office, he famously declared, "My fellow Americans, our long, national nightmare is over."
Ford had been the first vice president chosen under the terms of the 25th Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.
Ford spoke to CBS News in 2000 about that challenging time.
"People had lost faith in their government, there was disillusionment about public officials," he said. "That was a very very bad time in the history of the country."
When Spiro Agnew resigned the office of Vice President of the United States late in 1973, after pleading no contest to a charge of income tax evasion, President Nixon was empowered by the 25th Amendment to appoint a new vice president.
Presumably, he needed someone who could work with Congress, survive close scrutiny of his political career and private life, and be confirmed quickly. He chose Gerald R. Ford, and following the most thorough background investigation in the history of the FBI, Ford was confirmed and sworn in on Dec. 6, 1973.
The specter of the Watergate scandal, the break-in at Democratic headquarters during the 1972 campaign and the ensuing cover-up by Nixon administration officials, hung over Ford's nine-month tenure as vice president.
When it became apparent that evidence, public opinion, and the mood in Congress were all pointing toward impeachment, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign from that office.
Ford became president not because he was popular with the American public, not because he campaigned for the job, but because of his character. His colleagues in Congress put him in the White House because he told the truth and kept his word.
Ford personified what Nixon was not: Ford was honest, he could be trusted.
Throughout 25 years in the House of Representatives, Ford had proved himself to be a man of integrity. It was for that integrity that the highest powers of Congress, Democratic and Republican, chose Ford to be vice president, knowing that Nixon's presidency was doomed.
uppy: That's Jimmy Carter you bonehead!!!!
Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., after his biological father on July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents divorced when he was less than a year old, and when his mother remarried, he was given the name of his step-father, Gerald Rudolff Ford. He later changed the spelling of the middle name to Rudolf.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_us/obit_ford
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_us/obit_ford
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