The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 13

ro debs The Des Moines Register Tuesday, September 30, 1980 Inside Back Page fr REGISTER PHOTO BY GEORGE J. CEOLLA 'Vi'IWr Hey, Bossy Got a minute? Mae West worsening Hollywood sex legend Mae West, 87, whose purred innuendos and hip-swinging strut captivated, millions of filmgoers in the 1930s, was in worsening condition on Monday at Good Samaritan Hospital, a hospital source said. West suffered a stroke six weeks ago, which left the actress with impaired speech, but until last weekend she reportedly bad been resting in satisfactory condition in a tightly guarded celebrity suiteBut the hospital source, who asked not to be identified, told the Associated Press that West has been moved to the facility's intensive care unit, and her condition was deteriorating. The source said that reports last week in the Hollywood trade publication Daily Variety that West was improving and taking occasional automobile rides with a male companion were false. West's last film appearance was in 1978 in the comedy "Sextette," in which she played a film star on her sixth honeymoon.

No. 1 in his class George Arnold didn't think much of the schools in Malta, so he opened his own to teach bookkeeping, typing, basic electronics, Spanish, math, physical education, English grammar, and fine arts. The school Rosa Cunningham: "I think women ought to become more politically oriented." sought her rights 40 years has one pupil Arnold's son, Derick. George Arnold, a certified teacher, won't send Derick back to public school because he said the boy was mistreated there and was not properly, educated. So far, neither Malta school officials nor the county attorney has told Arnold to put his son in another school.

Czeching it out Multifaceted entertainer Barbra Streisand, who is scheduled to try her hand at directing when "Yentl" goes before the cameras, has been scouting locations in Czechoslovakia, according to CTK, the Czech state news agency. Streisand left Czechoslovakia on Monday after several days of talks in Prague with officials of the Czechoslovak Filmexport and the Barrandov Film Studio. conservative groups today' are futilely "trying to bring back the past. But water under the dam never comes back. I live in today's life.

What worked in the 1880s doesn't fit into the 1980s. We must meet today's problems on today's basis." She said she does miss the simplicity of life in the past. "We've had to give up good things with the changing times. But the good old days were not always so good. We've come a long ways; we have more work to do.

As Abe Lincoln said, 'Every person ought to earn his own place on I've tried. "My goal now is to live and be useful, And to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed." doors. So many womed have helped other women by pioneering and really suffering a great deal to do it They really had to struggle to get not only their education but to get a foothold in their professions. I've seen those things happen." The Ballot Box Now, she says, the answer to many problems lies in the ballot box. "I ''think women ought to become more politically oriented.

If more women were active and learned the machinery of politics, they could help many things and they could take themselves forward. Women must be willing to work twice as hard as men for the same things, though." Cunningham says she thinks some i our $199 to $639, styles 0to40off entire stock of recliners I try not to read The Omaha World-Herald this time of year because it's always so full of bad news things like the Nebraska iL--ii i i a 1 1 i a beating up on I somebody 57-0. That is why I am about a week late discovering an as tounding article the Herald ran, a profile Ion Nebraska Gov. 1 Charles Thone. The story was written by Regina J.

Hills, a correspondent for United Press International. It was published on the "people page," which is always crammed full of revealing little vignettes about folks. In the story, Thone, 56, recalls his boyhood on a farm near Bow Valley, a tiny town in Cedar County, Neb. And talk about revealing! He says one of the things he loves to do yet today is go back to the old family farmstead, roam through the fields and "lalk to the cattle." In case you think he's kidding about this, he adds we really do." He says it's a great way to "lose yourself" and to forget the cares and worries of the job. Holy cow! I remember what a stir it caused when it was revealed that Richard Nixon often talked to portraits in his final days in the White House.

And don't forget the ruckus that erupted when Iowa's own Harold Hughes told of communicating with his deceased brother. Now we have a politician talking to cattle. Wow, I'll bet the ol' BS gets thick in those conversations! As soon as I completed reading the story, I put in a call to Lincoln to inquire whether Thone ever loses any arguments out there in the pasture. He was unavailable on Monday, having flown to Hawaii to make a speech for Ronald Reagan and then spend a few days away from his office, according to an aide. (In case you are wondering, yes, they do have cattle on me lsianas.) "The governor has always kept close ties with his home and his back' ground," said Kay Orr, his executive assistant.

"He feels very close to the people of Cedar County." And how about the cattle of Cedar County? Orr said her boss has never talked to her about his chats with cows. "But I guess I can identify with how he feels about nature and the country," she said. "That's where the real world is." I happen to know a Willard "Wid Burney, who has a real estate company (and a few head of cattle) at Hartington, the county seat of Thone's old stomping grounds. I called him to ask whether talking to cattle is common in that territory. now, that's a new one on me," Burney said.

"You say Charlie is talking to cattle out here at Bow Valley? Heck, maybe they let the cattle vote over there. That'd be quite a political ploy, wouldn't it? "No, I've never talked to the cattle. I have caught myself waving to them now and then, but never talking." So until Thone gets back from Hawaii, we can only imagine what the conversations must be like: "Well, Bossy, it's me apain," Thone probably says. "How're things?" Bossy: "Charlie, my boy, always good to see you home from Lincoln. How're things you ask? I'll tell you straight my teats are sore." Thone: "Yeah, I've had mine in the ringer, too, so to speak.

I hate this time of year. Nobody pays any attention to me down in Lincoln. All they talk about is football." Bossy: "Go right ahead, Charlie. Spill your guts. These kinds of talks are very therapeutic for you." Thone: "Well, everytime the Huskers win big, all these jerks start talking about electing this Tom Osborne governor.

That guy really has the life, doesn't he? People follow him around like they're a herd of cattle. Oh, gosh! I didn't mean anything by that. Bossy." Bossy: "Oh, Charlie, you know what they always say." Thone: "Tell me what they always say, Bossy." Bossy: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." Chuck Offenburger Fort Lauderdale fire kills pressroom worker FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (AP) Fire swept through the pressroom of The Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel on Monday morning, killing one employee and doing "extensive damage," a spokesman for the newspapers said. A press handler, whose identity was withheld until his relatives could be notified, was found dead in the smoke-filled pressroom after the fire was put out, authorities said.

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94: Valley West or to order by phone call 223-2426 in Des Moines. Outside Iowa, call toll free 1-800-228-2028, ext 200 She has By CAROL PITTS RraliMr staff Writer Rosa Cunningham has changed with the times. And the times have changed with her. Nearly 40 years ago when she came to Des Moines, legislators were considering adoption of some "protective" laws. "Women were supposed to be so much weaker physically and that sort of thing.

They had to be protected," Cunningham says. She wanted no such protection and launched a successful battle against the measures. She's still battling. But now she isn't trying to defeat laws that are being proposed; she is battling in support of proposed laws the Equal Rights Amendments, to the Iowa and U.S. constitutions.

"Iallfjustice this equality measure must be gives to women," she says. Cunningham was legislative lobbyist for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women in 1972 when Congress passed the federal ERA. "Iowa was the fourth state to ratify the ERA," she says. "Of course, that was very gratifying. But we still lack three states that have to ratify it before it can become constitutional law." Cunningham's equal rights fight did not end in Iowa with the ratification of the federal ERA.

On Nov. 4, Iowans will be voting on an amendment to the state constitution that would declare that "equality of rights under the law" cannot be denied or restricted the basis of gender." "If this vote falls in November, It's going to have a bad psychological effect on the state," says Cunningham. i For 200 Years "It's a strange thing that in a country like ours, that for over 200 years women have asked for legal equality. It ERA has nothing to do with personal matters such as your marriage, a woman's homosexuality, abortion or any of those things. It's too bad that people do not understand that all the ERA is is legal equality.

There's nothing personal whatsoev er. In her quest for equal rights, Cunningham has found several heroines. One of them is Abigail Adams. In a letter to her husband, John, during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, Adams wrote: "In the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would Remember the Ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.

If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not bold Driver passes out, guides loaded bus GAINESVILLE, FLA. (AP) A 15-year-old boy steered a swerving school bus to safety Monday after its driver passed put on the way to class with an estimated 50 youngsters aboard, officials said. The quick-thinking ninth-grader, Kevin Corley, said at first be thought somebody was "joking around" when he heard a moan coming from the front of the bus. 'Then I saw the bus driver leaning over and she had her mouth open," the Gainesville High School student said. "The bus started to swerve." Corley said he was sitting by the window in the fourth row and apparently leaped over the passenger beside him to get to the front 'We hit the sidewalk and were ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have-no voice or Representation." Very Much Amused The future president replied that he was very much amused at his wife's preposterous request and assured her that the gentlemen had no idea of giving up their masculine superiority, Cunningham said.

"And so the declaration says all men are created equal; it says nothing about women," she notes. Although Cunningham is described by friends as being "probably in her 80s," she describes herself as a young woman. "Age is so relative. I'm 39 and holding. And I never expect to get old," Cunningham says.

In August she was inducted Into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame by the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, of which she is a Cunningham was honored for outstanding achievement in military service and for leadership in the women's movement over the past 50 years. She began crusading for women when she got her first job in Kansas. Cunningham was named acting manager for the company she worked for. "I was there for quite a while until a replacement for a manager who had to be promoted could be found," she says. "Then I was told I did a lot of nice things, a good job and this and that and the other thing.

But a woman couldn't handle this job all the because managers had to belong to chambers of commerce and do a lot of public relations and women just didn't do that then. "Well, I felt bad about it because if I had done a good job, I didnt think I was treated fairly. But I more or less accepted it because that was a sign of what was happening to women." "Protective" Laws Then Cunningham came to Iowa where she became alarmed about the "protective" laws being introduced and began lobbying the Legislature on behalf of the Business and Professional Women. "I very quickly found out a great number of things that one can do for this sort of thing. And I said, being very naive, 'Well, they can't do this to But of course they could.

And I had to set out to keep them from doing it." Cunningham a World War II Army veteran who was the first woman to command an Iowa American Legion post says women have made their greatest strides in the years since World War II. "It's sad that it had to take a war to give women something. They had to come in and take the place of many men in the economic world. They proved themselves, so that has opened some alert teen to safety going up a yard toward a telephone pole. I grabbed the wheel and swerved so we wouldn't hit the pole or a pine tree." "Then we were headed for a house and I swerved," he recalled.

A friend, Jeff Kiker, the steadied the wheel as Corley reached for the brakes to stop the bus, Corley said. The boy said no one was hurt and the only damage was to some bushes. Once, the block-long ordeal had ended, several students lifted the driver, Helen Lewison, from the bus and called police. The other passengers left through the emergency doors. Lewison's illness and condition were not revealed by the hospital.

DEIS BRAisrn.