People: May 3, 1968

Republican unity was the luncheon order of the day at the G.O.P.'s annual Women's Conference in Washington. Gracing the head table, all smiles and good cheer, were Pat Nixon, 45, Happy Rockefeller, 40, Lenore Romney, 58, and Nancy Reagan, 44. After the banquet, though, the girls were on their own, fielding reporters' questions. Pat Nixon was gung-ho for the presidential race. "I have such confidence in him," she said of her husband. Happy Rockefeller was ready to go along too. "Anything Nelson does is all right with me," she sighed. But Nancy Reagan was definitely cool to the idea. "I feel terribly sorry for anybody holding that office," she said. "And especially now."

Four astronauts have left the program for one reason or another, and now perhaps the best explanation of all comes from Brian T. O'Leary, 28, a civilian astronomer who signed on with NASA last August. "I'm afraid flying isn't my cup of tea," concluded O'Leary, who had logged 15 hours of preliminary training in light planes. "I just don't care for it."

No, no, Jack, you're not reading the green right ... the ball's going to drop off that rise, break to the left, and then back again just before it reaches the cup. Rattling off tips as fast as he turns quips, Golf Nut Bob Hope, 64, was doing his level best to impart the game's finer points to a youngster named Jack Nicklaus, 28, his partner in the pro-amateur warmup for Dallas' $100,000 Byron Nelson Classic. Big Jack may have been golf's leading moneywinner (with $188,998.08) last year, but Old Bob has been playing the game —and pretty well, too—for 40 years. So age and experience prevailed. Jack did as he was told and, as Bob stepped back to watch, boldly rapped the ball—right past the hole.

Retiring after 24 years on the job, Ford Vice President and Family Confidant John S. Bugas, 60, recalled the tempestuous days in 1945, when he helped young Henry Ford II wrest control of the company from Harry Bennett, the onetime sailor and prizefighter who had come to hold old Henry Ford, then 81, in virtual thrall. In a tense board meeting, young Ford ordered Bennett to turn his authority over to Bugas, later left the two alone. Bennett then turned on Bugas. "He shrieked at the top of his lungs," Bugas remembers. "He called me every curse word in the book. At the height of the tirade, he tore open a desk drawer, pulled out a .45. My .38 was inside my jacket. I was ready." Before any shots were fired, though, Bennett backed down, left town the same day, and no one at Ford ever saw him again.

Last winter Conductor Zubin Mehta, 32, let loose such an unkind trumpet blast at the musicians of the New York Philharmonic that a meeting ensued with the injured parties, during which Mehta apparently muted the brass. Or so everyone thought until last week when the Philharmonic's management disclosed that Mehta had been asked to "postpone" his guest stint with the New Yorkers next year. In Los Angeles, Mehta confirmed the postponement, and said: "I don't want more headaches. Every time I open my mouth I get into trouble. Let's talk about hockey."