Wait, what? How have I never heard that?
"Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, at
3202 Woolworth Avenue in
Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. He was the only child of
Dorothy Ayer Gardner and
Leslie Lynch King Sr., a wool trader. His paternal grandfather was banker and businessman
Charles Henry King, and his maternal grandfather was Illinois politician and businessman
Levi Addison Gardner. Ford's parents separated just sixteen days after his birth and his mother took the infant Ford with her to
Oak Park, Illinois, where her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law, Clarence Haskins James lived. From there, she moved to the home of her parents in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gardner and King divorced in December 1913, and she gained full custody of her son. Ford's paternal grandfather paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.
Ford later said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. In a biography of Ford,
James M. Cannon wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents was sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a
butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, infant son, and Ford's nursemaid. Ford later told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she had smiled at another man during their honeymoon.
After living with her parents for two and a half years, on February 1, 1917, Gardner married
Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company. Though never formally adopted, her young son was referred to as Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. from then on; the
name change, including the anglicized spelling "Rudolph", was formalized on December 3, 1935. He was raised in
Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage:
Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison "****" Ford (1924–2015), and James Francis "Jim" Ford (1927–2001)."