PALM DESERT, Calif. — First ladies and others who called the White House home remembered Betty Ford on Tuesday, not just for her decades-long work with substance abuse but for her contributions to an era when friendship among lawmakers helped them govern.

Speakers, including former first lady Roslynn Carter and journalist Cokie Roberts, also hailed her as a force of nature whose boundless energy and enthusiasm, coupled with a steadfast determination to do what was right, pushed the country toward a commitment to equal rights for women and other causes.

Ford, who died at 93 Friday, reshaped the role of first lady with her plain-spoken candidness.

In doing so, she helped bring such previously taboo subjects as breast cancer into the public discussion as she openly discussed her own battle with the disease. She was equally candid about her struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, and her spearheading of the creation of the Betty Ford Center to treat those diseases has benefited thousands.

“Millions of women are in her debt today and she was never afraid to speak the truth even about the most sensitive subjects, including her own struggle with alcohol and pain killers,” Carter said. “She got some criticism, but I thought she was wonderful and her honesty gave to others every single day.”

Roberts noted that Ford’s late husband, President Gerald R. Ford, confided to her privately that his wife badgered him relentlessly into stronger public support of women’s rights.

Roberts said the former first lady told her to let people know that politics does not have to as acrimonious as it is today. “Mrs. Ford wanted me to remind everyone of the way things used to be in Washington, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she timed her death so she could deliver the message of comity when it was so badly needed,” she said.