Betty Ford memorials planned in Calif., Mich. and Michigan

Associated Press

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif.

Rancho Mirage was a billionaire’s playground dotted by gated golf resorts, estates and spas before Betty Ford made it famous to the rest of the world with a rehab center that treated a stream of spiraling Hollywood stars that spanned generations, from Elizabeth Taylor to Lindsay Lohan.

When Ford died Friday afternoon, she had outlived some of her most famous celebrity successes and saved the lives of many more, a legacy that inspired A-listers and average residents alike to pay tribute to a former first lady who left her mark — and her name — all over the city she made famous.

Ford died of natural causes at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, the desert golf community where she settled with former President Gerald Ford after he left office more than three decades ago, according to family attorney and spokesman Greg Willard. She was 93.

She will be memorialized in both California’s Coachella Valley, which includes Rancho Mirage, and Michigan this week as her casket travels by motorcade and military transport to be laid to rest alongside her husband in Grand Rapids.

In Rancho Mirage, residents were saddened by her death even as they praised her devotion to removing the stigma from addiction. The Betty Ford Center treated more than 90,000 people since its beginnings in 1982 and although it was most famous for a string of celebrity patients, it kept its rates relatively affordable and provided a model for effective addiction treatment.