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Evelyn Wadsworth Symington, 54, is another who comes from an old-line Republican family (her grandfather: Secretary of State John Hay). She met Stu Symington when he was a Yale student, married him in 1924, has two sons, five grandchildren. During the Depression, she became a supper-club singer in Manhattan (The Very Thought of You, Can I Forget You, My Romance), gave it up when the family moved on to St. Louis. She worked hard during her husband's first Missouri senatorial campaign in 1952, took on a hard schedule in 1958. No speechmaker, she has the advantage of wide acquaintanceships in Washington, New York and St. Louis, is an active hostess. "All Missouri." says a friend, "loves Miss Evie." After the Senator's re-election this month, Bess Truman took her aside, confided: "Don't you worry, Evie, campaigning for the presidency is easier than campaigning for Senator—the trips between speeches are longer."
Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, called
"Lady Bird" by her husband and friends, is the daughter of an Alabaman who went to Texas to earn money to finance a medical education, earned $3,000,000 and 20,000 acres of land, forgot about medicine. Lady Bird met Lyndon Johnson in Austin in 1934, dated him next day at the Maverick Cafe, married him two months later, bore him two daughters (eleven and 14). The balance wheel in the life of her high-powered husband, she is the only one who can get him to slack off, sees to it that he will find a good steak in the refrigerator when he comes in late, can produce barbecued spareribs or steaks for four or 40 unexpected guests, or pack his dinner jacket, take it to his Capitol office and wait patiently for him to change for a social appointment. She travels with Lyndon, sometimes pinch-hits for a weary secretary, taking dictation or telephone calls. A smart businesswoman as well, she owns 2,900 acres of Alabama cotton and timberland. controlling interest in four radio and TV stations in Texas. "I wouldn't trade this life for anything," she says. "It's been a front-row seat on the human comedy."
*Adlai's third cousin by marriage on the maternal side; the name Stevenson is a coincidence.