Harold Ford Jr.’s parents are Harold Eugene Ford Sr. and Dorothy Bowles Ford. The father of the African-American man is a former Democratic United States House of Representatives member who represented the Memphis, Tennessee, area from 1975 to 1997.
Harold Eugene Ford Jr.’s father was the first African American to represent Tennessee in the US Congress. His mother, on the other hand, used to work for Pontomac’s Electric Power Company before serving as her husband’s administrator while he was in office during their marriage. Let’s take a journey to unveil all there is to know about Harold Ford Jr.’s mother and father.
Meet Harold Ford Jr.’s Parents
Harold Ford Jr. comes from a renowned political family, and it’s time to meet some of the members of the famed Memphis Ford political family, beginning with his parents – Harold Ford Sr. and Dorothy Bowles Ford.
Harold Ford Sr. Represented Tennessee in Congress
As previously stated, Harold Ford Jr. essentially toed the same career path as his politician father. The Ford family is one of the most recognizable political families in Memphis, Tennessee, and the older statesman played a significant role in ensuring the legacy of that great African American family.
Born Harold Eugene Ford on May 20, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee, Ford Sr. was the 8th of 15 children born to Newton Jackson Ford and Vera Davis Ford. Newton was an undertaker and businessman who started N.J. Ford & Sons Funeral Home in 1932, although it was previously simply known as N.J. Ford Funeral Home, while Vera was a homemaker.
Harold Ford Sr. spent his formative years in Horn Lake Road, a West Junction neighborhood of South Memphis, alongside a brother named John Ford and a sister named Ophelia Ford. The older Ford is well educated, beginning from his days at Geeter High School. After graduating high school in 1963, Harold Ford Sr. enrolled in Tennessee State University in Nashville and graduated with a B.S. in 1967.
He spent the next year doing graduate work at TSU before proceeding to John A. Fulton College, also in Nashville, to acquire a degree in Mortuary Science in 1969. Although he spent some time working in the family business as a mortician for a few years between 1969 and 1974, Harold Ford Sr. went on to bag a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Howard University in 1982.
As stated earlier, the Ford Family is a notable political family in Memphis, Tennessee, whose journey in politics began with Harold Ford Sr.’s great-grandfather Newton Ford who was elected county squire from 1888 to 1900. Long before Harold Ford Jr. took up the reins of serving in the United States House of Representatives, his father had held the office for 11 years from 1975 until he retired in 1997.
Harold Ford Sr. is a dedicated Democratic Party member. Despite his retirement, he has served the party to the best of his abilities, including working as a lobbyist. He currently resides in Florida and occasionally in the Hamptons with his wife and family.
Dorothy Bowles Ford Worked as an Administrator
Dorothy Bowles Ford was a relatively unknown entity whose status changed when she married the former 11-term House of Reps member. Prior to that, she worked as a coordinator of Consumer and Regulatory Functions for Pontomac’s Electric Power Company.
Other than the very real possibility that Dorothy Bowles Ford was also born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, not much is known about her early life and family background, including the identity of her parents and relatives. Several outlets have opined that Dorothy Bowles Ford is in her mid to late 70s, which would indirectly suggest that she was born in the late 1940s.
After her marriage to Ford Sr. in the late 1960s, Harold Ford Jr.’s mother essentially became a mortician’s wife and then later a politician’s wife. For most of her ex-husband’s years in office, Dorothy Bowles Ford served as his administrator. Since the dissolution of their marriage, however, she has resolutely stayed away from the spotlight.
His Parents Were Married For Over 30 Years
Harold Ford Jr.’s parents exchanged marital vows in 1969. Several reports have confirmed that the former couple met in high school and went their separate ways for a long while before reuniting in the late 1960s. This time, they decided to take their relationship to the next level and become man and wife.
The exact details of the wedding festivities have been overshadowed by subsequent events, but they remained a married couple for around 30 years until their divorce in 1997. The reason for the dissolution of their marriage has yet to be determined, but we can confirm that Harold Ford Jr. was well into his 20s by the time his parents decided to part ways as a married couple.
Aside from the last chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, Dorothy Bowles Ford and her ex-husband had two other sons named Jake Ford and Isaac Ford. Despite the divorce, Harold Ford Jr. has a very good relationship with both his mother and his father, who went on to remarry a former National Basketball Players Association executive director named Michelle Roberts in 1999. They have 2 children named Ava and Andrew Ford together.
Is Harold Ford Jr. Related To Gerald Ford?
Despite the identical last names, Harold Ford Jr. is not related to Gerald Ford. The only similarities between the two Fords remain the fact that their mothers shared the same first name, and also they were both United States politicians, although the latter held the highest office in the land at some point in his political career.
Born Leslie Lynch King Jr. to Leslie Lynch King Sr. and Dorothy Ayer Gardner on July 14, 1913, the 38th United States of America President formerly changed his name to Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. on December 3, 1935. Before the formalities, he had been addressed by that name following his mother’s remarriage to Gerald Rudolff Ford Sr. on February 1, 1917.
Gerald Ford served his country faithfully, including in the esteemed office of the President following Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. He remains the only US president not to have been elected to either the office of the Vice President or that of the President, and he stayed in office until 1977 before losing the 1976 Presidential election to Jimmy Carter.
Ford died on December 26, 2006, and was the longest-living US President at the time of his death, having lived to the age of 93 years and 165 days – 45 days longer than Ronald Reagan.
What is Harold Ford Jr.’s Ethnicity?
Harold Ford Jr. belongs to the African American ethnic group. His father, Harold Ford Sr., was born to African American parents, while his mom, Dorothy Bowles Ford, was also born to a predominantly African American family with a hint of European ethnicity.
Nonetheless, Harold Ford Jr. is an American citizen, having been born on May 11, 1970, in Memphis, Tennessee. He has lived the majority of his life in the United States and has also followed in his father’s footsteps by serving in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party for 10 years from 1997 to 2007, representing Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District in Memphis.
