First Lady Betty Ford and Social Secretary Maria Downs in the East Colonnade. November 20, 1975.

Maria Downs, social secretary in the Ford administration, 1975 to 1977

“[The White House] affects you. Every morning as I walked through the East Wing gates to my office I had a very special feeling—a ‘wondrous strange feeling.’ Over the years many guests have mentioned that feeling to me—the transformation that happens when they come to the White House.”