She was born when Benjamin Harrison was in the White House, when Brahms and Tchaikovsky were composing and in the same year as Dwight Eisenhower and Casey Stengel. On Monday, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of a president and two U.S. senators, turned 101, marking the occasion with a quiet celebration with a few friends and family in Hyannis Port, Mass. ”This is a very low-key celebration this year,” said Melody Miller, a spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), youngest son of the family matriarch. Rose Kennedy, who is ailing and uses a wheelchair, appeared briefly on the porch of her house, but there were no public events. On Sunday, a rose-filled park in Hyannis Port was dedicated in her honor.
KUWAIT HONORS SCHWARZKOPF Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, whom future generations may call the ”lion of Kuwait,” received the emirate`s highest honor Monday. Emir Sheikh Jaber Ahmed al-Sabah presented the general the gold-and-blue sash of the
Distinguished Order of Kuwait. Schwarzkopf, who led the 37-nation allied force that liberated Kuwait, liked the changes in the landscape. ”The last time I was here in April and the skies were so very, very dark,” Schwarzkopf said.
”To come back . . . and see it so much brighter brings joy to my heart.”
Retreating Iraqi forces set fire to about 600 oil wells, but more than a third of the blazes have been put out. Schwarzkopf is in Kuwait to say farewell to the 3,700 U.S. troops still in the emirate.
WEDDING BELLS I The Persian Gulf war did have some benefits. When Leslie Glanville of Westfall, Ore., read a newspaper column last fall about the loneliness of many U.S. soldiers in the gulf, she decided to send a Halloween card to ”Any Soldier.” U.S. Army Sgt. John Morgan of Mt. Clemens, Mich., received the letter. After an exchange of letters, the two spoke for the first time in mid- February, just before the U.S.-led Allies began the ground war to liberate Kuwait. Glanville`s letters grew to 10 pages in length, accompanied by food, books and music. The two finally met when Morgan returned to Ft. Benning, Ga., and within days they were engaged. They were married Saturday in Oregon and plan a honeymoon on the Oregon coast.
WEDDING BELLS II Not quite as traditional was the black T-shirts and fatigues ceremony Sunday as Mick Sears and Linda Huff exchanged vows in the woods north of Biloxi, Miss. Why these woods? Because it`s the home of SWAT Inc., a war games company whose clients hunt with guns that fire paint bullets. Maid of honor Julie Killebrew liked the change in format. ”I loved it because I didn`t have to worry about falling on my face if the heel of my shoe got caught in my gown,” she said. ”Everybody`s worried about the formal thing. I say do what you want.” The couple met last year in the woods of DeSoto National Forest while they were skeet shooting and mud wrestling. Huff wore an army green handkerchief garter belt tied around her right thigh.
JUST DUCKY Robert McCloskey`s ”Make Way for Ducklings,” the children`s classic that chronicles a mother duck`s search for a proper home for her clan in downtown Boston, has been honored since 1987 with nine bronze statues in the Boston Public Garden. Now a replica of the statues will have a home in Moscow. First Lady Barbara Bush and Raisa Gorbachev visited the Public Garden in 1990 and both enjoyed the handiwork of Boston sculptor Nancy Schon. The artist offered to make a replica for a Moscow park, and the two first ladies ”were delighted with the idea,” said Barbara Bush`s press office. The two women will dedicate the statues during their husbands` summit next week when Mrs. Bush will present the works as a gift from the children of the U.S. to the children of the Soviet Union.
