Life with Ike

In the years since her husband became a famous man, Mrs. Mamie Eisenhower had steadfastly refused to hold a formal press conference. Last week she finally agreed to one. The affair turned out to be interesting, but not quite what the reporters had anticipated: Mamie spent almost all of her 35 minutes talking about Ike, not about Mamie.

"I'm not a very interesting person to write about," she said. "I never seem to find time hanging heavily on my hands, but I haven't any special talents or any hobbies. Now, take Ike--fishing, golf, cooking--and then all of a sudden he started this painting and he's good at everything."

Her husband's painting career began, she confided, at Fort Myer, Va. (when he was on duty at the nearby Pentagon after the war). He just called for "a rag, thumb tacks and a board." The rag turned out to be a dish cloth on which he painted an oil portrait of Mamie. "I just don't know the word for it," she said.

"He's not very successful with me," she said, "and he's sort of given me up." Landscapes, she thought, suit his talents better. But for all that, the original painting had not gone into the trash can; it was jealously claimed and is now treasured by New York Artist Thomas Stephens. "Mr. Churchill's good [at painting]," Mamie added, "but he's had instruction. Ike hasn't and he's really wonderful."

"Ike's a much better cook than I am," she went on. "I'm not very good in the kitchen. He has a steak thing. He broils the steak over charcoal with a light butter sauce seasoned with garlic powder--everything he does has garlic. The steaks get burned-looking and you wonder if they'll be any good. They are."

Did she think the general would be elected? "Certainly!" Would she campaign with him? "I hope to go every place that my husband goes." Would she make any speeches? "No, I'm not planning to." She laughed and added, "You know that word 'no.' You can't ever be that final. I might be doing it yet." How was the general feeling? "Oh, Ike's as fresh as a daisy." And Mamie? "And me--?" she said. "Well, I'm all right."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.