(2 of 2)
Guest of Honor Dwight Eisenhower, 76, was recuperating from a gastrointestinal ailment in Washington, but his presence certainly saturated two floors of Manhattan's Gallery of Modern Art. Ike's wife Mamie led a constellation of 800 family members, friends and political and military colleagues through a preview tour of "The Memorable Eisenhower Years," the most exhaustive chronological display ever assembled of his boyhood mementos, battle gear, presidential memorabilia, photographs, portraits and 80 of his own paintings. Ike's own celebration took place later in the week when he left Walter Reed Hospital, feeling chipper enough, he said, to think about accepting President Johnson's suggestion that he undertake a goodwill tour of Southeast Asia.
"I remember being in a blind rage as I was emerging from the anesthetic. I was hearing some loud noise, which I later discovered to be the sheet rubbing against my bandage." For more than 25 years prior to the operation two months ago, Musical Comedy Star Nanette Fabray, 46, would have been lucky to hear a bulldozer rubbing against a slate wall. A gradually worsening case of otosclerosis, a fusing of the ear's tiny vibrating bones, had forced her to resort to a hearing aid even while performing. Now pluperfect in her left ear (her right is still afflicted), she spends ten to 20 hours a week speaking "any place they ask me" and serving on the boards of the New York League for the Hard of Hearing and the U.C.L.A. Hope for Hearing Foundation.
Kenya's newest and highest official honor, the Order of the Golden Heart, a gold medal depicting a lion against a background of snow-capped Mount Kenya, will certainly be worn with pride by the 50 Kenyans who have earned first-class membership by their "most conspicuous, outstanding and special service" to the republic. But no one is likely to derive greater satisfaction from the new order than the founder himself, who from now on will answer to the resounding title of His Excellency the Honorable Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Member of Parliament and President of Kenya, Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya—a sobriquet only a few credits shorter than that of his old friend, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, King of Kings, King of Zion, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Branch of the Tree of Solomon, and Implement of the Holy Trinity.