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She could call it The Perils of Josephine, considering all the troubles that have plagued her as she has struggled to provide a home for her brood of twelve adopted children. Last year, as the bills piled up, expatriate Negro Singer Josephine Baker, 62, was forced to sell her chateau in the South of France to pay off at least some of the creditors. Even then, the still beautiful songbird refused to leave her nest, and by some maneuverings managed to hang on until December—at which point an old French law that prevents eviction in the cold winter months was invoked, thus assuring her possession until mid-March. But the creditors keep clamoring, and last week most of the chateau's furnishings were sold at auction for $53,-000. Meanwhile, Josephine was making some money herself on a concert tour of Austria. "Buy back everything," she wryly wired her representative, "up to $7,000."
Doctors at Kansas City's Research Hospital issued the bulletin and hastened to add that their patient's condition did not appear serious. Former President Harry S Truman had been brought in at midnight, suffering from intestinal influenza. "His condition is satisfactory, and he is in no discomfort." Next day, he was even feeling chipper enough to get out of bed and read the newspaper. Truman, who has not gone to his office in the Truman Library for the past two years, still keeps up with things at his Independence home. Only the day before, he had worked on a special announcement: Chief Justice Earl Warren would become chairman of the board of the Harry S Truman International Center for the Advancement of Peace in Jerusalem.
For a while, the family's new father was busy flying around the world tending his billions. Now, pressures seem to have eased, and there, enjoying a leisurely Sunday brunch at Manhattan's Trader Vic's, was a beaming Aristotle Onassis, with Jackie and Son John, who amused himself by sneaking swizzle sticks and loading up on fortune cookies. Afterward, the three took a brief stroll in the nippy air, Onassis, as always, shunning an overcoat and young John manfully emulating his stepfather.