Lyndon Baines Johnson does not do things by halves, and Susan Wagner, 53, wife of New York's mayor, found it out first hand. In St. Luke's Hospital for a checkup, she was the pleased recipient of a surprise getwellogram. "When I learned you were in the hospital, I thought about the many long hours you spent in being hospitable to me and mine in 1960," wrote L.B.J. in horizon-to-horizon Texas style. "I realize I was one of those who probably contributed to asking you to do too much. Lady Bird joins me in praying that you will be out of the hospital and well very quickly. We want you to know we love you very much."
A source in the Soviet space program just could not keep from busting his buttons, and the news, still officially unconfirmed, was out that Cosmonette Valentino Tereshlcova, 26, and Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev, 34, married last November, are expecting a child next summer.
Hardly anyone could believe that carefully curried Cary Grant had turned 60. But not even Sophie Tucker could believe that she was 80. After a one-candle-cake celebration during her annual birthday engagement at New Orleans' Roosevelt Hotel, she took issue with her reported octogenarian status. "I'm 76," protested the very last of the red-hot mamas. "I'll tell you why the statistics are mixed up. I was 16 when I first went to New York, and the law was you couldn't work in a cabaret until you were 18. So I went home and painted up and piled my hair up high and passed for 20. The record has been bugging me ever since. Good Lord, I won't be alive when I'm 80." And what was her secret for getting as far as she had? "Keep breathing," she dimpled.
The family long ago accepted his death, but the legal loose ends still remained to be cleared up. At last, in a Westchester, N.Y., surrogate's court, an affidavit was filed by his father to have Michael Rockefeller declared legally deceased. Lost two years ago off the southern New Guinea coast when his catamaran capsized, Mike at 23 left an estate of $660,000 in mixed investments. In the absence of a will, the money will go to his parents, Nelson Rockefeller and First Wife Mary Todhunter Clark Rockefeller.
The last minute is the best time to change your mind. At least Roswell Gilpatric, 57, thinks so. Finally making his much-talked-about return to private law practice after three years as Deputy Defense Secretary, he called a farewell press conference and said he no longer felt that the three military services could be usefully united. Nor did he still think that the three civilian service secretaries could better function as Assistant Defense Secretaries. And he had also abandoned the idea for a single Chief of Staff to represent all the military branches. But it wasn't a total turnabout. He still agrees with Robert McNamara on greater reliance on missiles.