There she married her first husband, wool trader Leslie Lynch King Sr. of Omaha, Nebraska, on September 7, 1912.

His parents were wealthy banker and businessman Charles Henry King and the former Martha Alicia Porter, both from Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

After Leslie threatened her and the child with a butcher knife a few days after the birth, Gardner King completed her plans to leave her husband.

She took Leslie Jr. with her to the Oak Park, Illinois home of her sister Tannisse and her husband, Clarence Haskins James.

[4] Three years later, Dorothy met Grand Rapids businessman Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1917.

Later Ford recounted that his mother insisted he learn to control his temper, one he seemed to have inherited from his biological father.