the very now, i'd like to invite gleaves whitney, executive director of the gerald dar ford presidential foundation, to the podium to introduce tonight's speaker, gleaves. thanks for.

the very now, i'd like to invite gleaves whitney, executive director of the gerald dar ford presidential

well, as our c-span audience everywhere, i'm gleaves whitney executive director of the gerald r ford presidential foundation. and it's my honor to be your host, along with a lot of good people today, and to welcome to our 2023 edition of america's first ladies luncheon. this year's event is centered around a theme first ladies pat nixon and betty ford lives of leadership, courage and, grace. three great words to describe these remarkable women are our foundation's long running first ladies series is the brainchild of the first daughter, susan ford bales, who's here with us from texas. susan, thank you so much for your dedication after all these years. and joining susan are number of special guests. so i'd like you to hold your applause to the end, please. president mrs. nixon's son in law, ed cox, is with us. he joins us in lieu of his son, christopher, who was originally on the program but could not make it today. and then we have mrs. nixon's and mrs. ford's chief communication. patti mattson. thank you much for being here. leaders and, board members of the white house historical a

now, i'd like to invite gleaves whitney, executive director of the gerald dar ford presidential foundation, to the podium to introduce tonight's speaker, gleaves. thanks for. as joel, just said, we're back. look at this. this is great to have all these people in the auditorium after all those months of covid. so i applaud you for being here. you came for a great program this evening. as as you all know, we've been bringing bill brands back to grand rapids, west michigan, for many years, almost two decades. and i'll introduce him in just a minute. but first, i want to welcome our c-span, our viewing audience. i want to welcome all of you who are here in person. i think we have some trustees from the gerald ford presidential foundation to recognize. i think i see bob hooker and i think j.c. rising is here. we have one of the ford president ford's family members, greg ford, a nephew of president. mrs. ford, welcome. glad you're always glad you're here. so, yeah, go ahead and applaud. absolutely absolutely. now, those of you who have been to this gig before know that i have tried every which w