THE VICE-PRESIDENCY: The Merry Widower

A Washington newshen bustled up to Vice President Alben Barkley and asked coyly: "Veep, my editor would like to know what La Dame Hadley has that we don't have—except maybe you?" Barkley promptly seized good-looking, thirtyish Ruth Montgomery and bussed her smack on the lips. "There is your answer, kid!" cried the Veep. Chortling, he added: "I'll tell you something you've got that she hasn't got—a husband."

The New York Daily News's Montgomery was talking about Mrs. Carlton (Jane) Hadley, the comely, 37-year-old St. Louis widow whom Barkley had managed of late to see most every weekend. But the nation's tabloid readers needed no explanation. Last week they were following the sedate capers of 71-year-old Widower Alben Barkley with the interest usually reserved for limber-loined starlets bound for the Riviera.

Barkley was a mite stiff in the joints, but his eagerness to kiss a pretty girl was as well known as his homespun quip. President Harry Truman, signing a bill authorizing a special Barkley medal for his long and distinguished record in Congress, jokingly displayed a LIFE spread of Barkley cavorting with a Washington hostess, as evidence of his "service." Mr. Truman might have added that since Barkley took office in January, he has made more speeches (62 in 21 states), crowned more queens, and bussed more babies than any Vice President of record.

At week's end, after only two speeches (Paris, Ky. and Altoona, Pa.), Barkley took off in a converted B-17 accompanied by his favorite Mayflower Hotel musicians —a guitarist, a violinist, and an accordion player. "You're a little late," said Mrs. Hadley, who had been waiting for an hour at the St. Louis airport. Asked if they would elope, Barkley laughed and said, "There's only one reason for a man and woman to elope. That's if their mammy and pappy object."

Flying back to Paducah, Ky., they repaired to Barkley's rambling brick house, "Angles." At the buffet supper that night Barkley stayed close to Mrs. Hadley, grinned when his traveling minstrels serenaded her with St. Louis Blues ("St. Louis woman . . . Pulls that man roun' by her apron strings"). Next day, Mrs. Hadley sat next to him as he dedicated the Paducah airport as Barkley Field.

Did the Vice President plan to marry Mrs. Hadley? Said Alben Barkley: "Frankly, that is an unfair question."