Young Wives' Tale

In some such place as the revolving door of Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, at one time or another, Suzy Stephenson might well have passed Cristina de Borbon. Suzy is a pertly pretty ex-model from Birmingham, Ala. Cristina, a long-lashed Spanish beauty who has 27 other given names, is a relative of the late Alfonso XIII. Both Suzy and Cristina were involved last week with rich South Americans named Antenor. Suzy was on her way in the door, Cristina on her way out.

Antenor No. I. Suzy came by her Antenor circuitously. She quit modeling at 18 to marry U.S. Candy Heir George Schrafft, a speedboat enthusiast; soon she divorced him and married Brazillionaire Carlos Guinle, a racing-car enthusiast. But all Carlosinho's coffee millions could not make up to Suzy for being treated like an old-fashioned Brazilian wife. She resented having to pour tea for Rio matrons while Carlosinho stepped out; she also resented the gossips' talk that, if she failed to appear in public for a few days, she was waiting at home for the black & blue marks of Carlos' annoyance to fade from her petal-soft skin. "I just can't make myself over in the Brazilian pattern," she decided, and divorced him.

Last week, nevertheless, Suzy married another Brazilian, Antenor Mayrink Veiga, 47, owner of Rio's radio station Mayrink Veiga, proprietor of the Casa Mayrink Veiga (machines, munitions) on Rio's Rua Mayrink Veiga, and sometime husband of the much-married Flor de Oro Trujillo, daughter of the Dominican dictator. Said Suzy: "He's no playboy, but older--just what I need."

Antenor No. 2. Cristina's Antenor is the son of the late Bolivian Tin King Simon Patino. Though the Patino holdings have been estimated at a comfortable $1 billion, Antenor has never been profligate (he once put in several tax-exempt years as Bolivia's ambassador to London). Cristina managed, however, to separate him from an even half-million dollars after a 1944 separation, won a court judgment for another $500,000 by proving some indiscretions with a brunette model named Francesca Simms in 1945. This irritated Antenor to the point of trying for a Paris divorce, but he soon discovered there would be considerable alimony involved. He wanted to try again in La Paz, where the judges knew him better, only to find that under existing Bolivian law he could get no divorce at all.

Some weeks ago, Bolivian Senator Tomas Manuel Elio, who by a strange coincidence is also legal adviser for the Patino interests, introduced an amendment to the divorce law. When it came up for discussion last week, the President of Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies rose gravely to read a cable from Paris asking that the amendment be pigeonholed. "I do not ask you, Mr. President, to take any action contrary to law," the cable read, "but presently the only divorce suit ... at stake is the one brought against me ..." It was signed Cristina de Borbon de Patino.

Suggested one Bolivian, recalling that Cristina had once been voted the world's best-dressed woman: "Why not have all the well-dressed Congressmen vote for Cristina, and the shabby ones vote for Antenor?"

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