Nation: IN THE KITCHEN WITH MAGGIE

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Born in Moorhead, Minn., and orphaned as an infant, Warren Magnuson grew up in Lutheran Scandinavian surroundings, roamed the Northwest as a young man picking crops, put himself through the University of Washington and its law school, was elected to the state legislature in 1932, and became King County (Seattle) prosecutor in 1934. Two years later he won his seat in the House and in 1944 moved over to the Senate where he became a gay blade. He had been married in 1928 to a former Miss Seattle and was divorced in 1935; now he was on the town.

But none of his Senate colleagues held it against him. Once, when Georgia's venerable Senator Walter George chided him in the Senate lobby for missing a late-night vote, Maggie replied: "Senator, I knew you would take care of my interests and you didn't need my vote. To tell the truth, I had an engagement in the late afternoon with a very beautiful woman—a blonde, kindly girl. We had a cocktail, maybe two. Then we went to dinner at the Shoreham. It was a lovely dinner. The girl had a little wine, and she was really beautiful in the candlelight. Then—well, Senator, you wouldn't have wanted me to be rude and abandon her, would you now?" Said Walter George: "Warren, I just never would have forgiven myself—or you—if you had abandoned that young lady."

Today, at 56, Warren Magnuson has fewer candlelight dinners. But he holds to other informal interests. A sleepy-eyed, pot-raking poker player, he likes nothing better than to spend an evening with Cutty Sark and cards. When Harry Truman was in the White House, Maggie was a poker-playing friend.

Next year, Maggie comes up for re-election to a fourth Senate term, and at last week's $100-a-plate testimonial dinner more than $260,000 was collected for his campaign. But there has been no evidence so far that he will have serious opposition—and as things now stand, he will probably spend $250 for his filing fee, may turn much of his war chest over to three of his state's colleges and universities for a "Warren G. Magnuson Merit Award."