Martha Alicia Porter King

Martha Alicia Porter King (b. November 17 1854, Indiana - d. July 14 1930) was the paternal grandmother of President Gerald Ford. The future president, initially named Leslie Lynch King, Jr., was born in her Omaha, Nebraska home.

Martha Alicia Porter married Charles Henry King; they had five children: two sons and three daughters. One of their sons was Leslie Lynch King, who was born in Chadron, Nebraska.

They moved to Omaha where Charles became a prosperous banker, building a three-story, 14-room Victorian mansion in central Omaha at 3202 Woolworth. Their son Leslie married Dorothy Ayer Gardner on September 7 1912. The couple moved to the King home to await the child's birth (July 14 1913). Named initially as Leslie Lynch King, Jr., that child would become President Gerald R. Ford.

However, Dorothy King fled from her reportedly abusive husband with the 16-day-old baby - first to her sister in Oak Park, Illinois and then to her parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Leslie and Dorothy King were formally divorced on December 19 1913 and remarried in 1917 to Gerald Rudolff Ford, whose name her son would legally take in 1935.

President Ford had said that he was never aware of who his biological father was until just before he turned 15 in 1928. He did not legally change his name until 1935.

Charles and Martha Alicia King died within five months of each other in California in 1930. Martha Alicia Porter King died on her grandson Leslie (President Gerald Ford)'s 17th birthday.

The Kings were interred there at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Their son, Leslie Lynch King, the biological father of Gerald Ford is also buried there.

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