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On leave from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve to help put the international goodwill situation well in hand for the State Department, ist Lieut. Bob Mathias, 24, world and Olympic (1948, 1952) champion in the decathlon, turned out for an exhibition in Teheran. As admiring Iranians watched, he let a shaven-topped lad touch his discus for good luck.
After 32 distinguished years in the Army, Major General William F. Dean, 56, top-ranking hero of the Korean war and for three grisly years a prisoner of the Chinese Reds, packed his military gear for retirement this week. Highlight of Medal-of-Honorman Dean's last parade at San Francisco's famed Presidio: the award of a combat infantryman's badge, which he missed on the way up.
Alabama's easygoing Governor James E. ("Kissin' Jim") Folsom, something of a Baptist himself, was totally immersed in hot water all week long by disapproving hard-shell fellow Baptists. First off, the Bessemer Baptist Association accused Folsom of "profaning a prayer." Kissin' Jim's reported praise to a parson: "That was a damned good Baptist prayer!" The governor was then accused by high drys of shamelessly grappling with John Barleycorn during a late-hour press conference. Alabama newsmen, not overly fond of Folsom, had gleefully reported that Kissin' Jim, brandishing a three-quarters-full highball glass, had told them that he didn't mind if they reported the presence of whisky in the room, and furthermore, that he was drinking some of it.