Tug on the Heartstrings

In honor of the First Lady's 59th birthday (actually four months past), a Washington club of 650 Wives of the Federal Independent Agencies last week held a televised party that moved Mamie Doud Eisenhower and millions of viewing housewives to smiles and tears.

The club members, who had originally set their party for Nov. 14, Mrs. Eisenhower's birthday, and had to postpone it when Ike was taken ill, gathered in the Willard Hotel, where they applauded warmly as their guest was led in to the strains of the Marine Band. The diners sat down to broiled chicken, vanilla parfait, "Mamie cakes" and small talk: Mrs. Eisenhower reported granddaughter Barbara Anne down with mumps and laughed heartily when Mrs. Kenneth H. Tuggle revealed that her daughter Sarah had written to the President to report that "I go to the same school with David [Eisenhower]. The only trouble is I see very little of David because the Secret Service gets in the way."

When the small Mamie cakes (topped with white icing, pink rosebuds and "Mamie" in pink icing) arrived, Mrs. John S. Doud warned her daughters (Mrs. Eisenhower and Mrs. George Gordon Moore) to save theirs for her great grandchildren. The First Lady laughingly defied her mother, told the head table "I love sweets" and munched away.

After dessert came favors for each lady (a paper fan and a peppermint "Mamie" carnation flown in from Colorado) and presents for the guest of honor: an antique fan of mother-of-pearl and lace and Iowa steaks, which Club President Mrs. Whitney Gillilland hoped Ike might cook himself. Then all sat back to watch the 30-minute telecast on monitors spaced around the ballroom.

The show, carried by CBS and ABC, had a cast headed by singers Tony Martin, Marion Marlowe and Martha Wright, who set the mood of remembrance with snapshots of Mamie over the years. Their songs, her favorites, were Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, I Dreamt that I Dwelt in Marble Halls, Lovely Lake Geneva, The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, Down Among the Sheltering Palms (as a dance team dressed as Mamie and Ike, pre-World War 1, cut figures on the screen), Till We Meet Again, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy, Wunderbar, It's a Lovely Day Today, Love and Marriage and Memories Are Made of This.

Between numbers the camera switched to the guest of honor and several times discovered her dabbing at her eyes. There was much eye-dabbing in the Willard ballroom; the ladies understood when Mrs. Eisenhower rose at party's end to tell them: "This has been one of the most wonderful birthday parties I've ever had, but it certainly did tear my heartstrings." She said that she hoped her husband had seen it on TV. Ike, between conferences, had seen a part.

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