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The NEW BERN
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PUBLISHID WIIKLY
IN THI mART OP
lASTBRN NORTH
CAROLINA
5^ Per Copy
VOLUME IS
NEW BERN, N. C. 28560, FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1972
NUMBER 7
It was our happy privilege to
be one of three reporters
destoated by the White House
staff to accompany the nation's
First Lady, room by room, on
her tour of the John Wright
Stanly House here.
Eleanor D. Kennedy of the
Greensboro Daily News and
another feminine typewriter
twunder, Lee Wilder of the
Raleigh News and Observer,
shared our good fortune.
Unanimously we found Pat
Nixon thoroughly charming.
To avoid congestion,
photographers for the news
media were paired, and each
pair assigned to a specific room
along the route. Flash bulbs
flar^ instantly, as Mrs. Nixon
entered each doorway.
We feel sure the two gal
reporters, at the outset, sized up
the First Lady’s simple but
smartly tailonki dress, and
silently specidated on what she
paid for it. All women are like
that.
Hardly an authority on good
grooming, we did appreciate
the fact that she wasn’t, as we
say down here in Dixie, all
dolled up. Or to put it another
way, she didn’t look flossy.
Even a man could see that.
'Ae thing that got to the
Mirror’s editor right off the bat
was her natural warmth and
kindness. "If I may say it,’’ we
told her quite sincerely, "the
cameras don’t do justice to your
lovely eyes.”
Such a comment could have
been misinterpreted. But bless
her heart, the First Lady
beamed and thanked us. Aftw
that, being in her presence was
as comfoi^ble as being with a
favorite ndghbor.
The siq>reme cmnpliment one
wotdd like to pay Pat Nixm is
hard to express in just the right
words. Kipling described her
rare kind when he wrote of
those "who walk with kings, nor
lose the conunon touch.”
No me from either side of the
railrowl track stands the risk of
Ceding lilHS a nobody around
her. Every tndy great perstm
we’Ve met in almost a half
century of reporting has had
this same quality, but not as
abundantly as the First Lady.
As a father and grandfather
who has never adjusted to the
tondiness that comes when
there are no longer young and
happy voices in the house, Mrs.
Nixon’s enthusiasm for a doll
bed touched us.
She was quidc to spy it in an
istairs room. Bending over.
^e fondled the covers, and
expressed delight upon flnding
a tiny mattress beneath them.
She carefully restored the
covers to thdr original neat
ness, todi a wistful backward
glance and moved on.
You can believe that Pat
Nixon has a genuine love for
children, and one of these days
she’ll be as foolish Ss any
grandmother or grandfather
you ever saw. Tliis too is a
common bond that the First
Lady has with all of us.
Mter she 1^ the John Wright
Stanly House, she passed a
groif) of litUe girls in green
uniform near the side gate
(Continued on page 8)
HAPPY OCXIJASION—Liz Ra^and, two year old
daughter of Principal Tom Ragland at Albert H.
Bangert Elementary School here, is as delighted as
any tot could possibly be. And no wonder, she is
posing for her picture with Miss North Carolina
(Patsy Wood of Benson) during the schooTs ob
servance of Heritage Week. Liz brought Raggedy
Andy along to meet the lovely queen, ^ appears to
be stifling him to prevent him firom speaking out of
turn. Who loiows, maybe Liz will wear a Miss North
Carolina crown some day, like New Bern’s Anita
Johnson did a few years back.—Photo by Chick
Natella.