People, Aug. 2, 1976

With a happy smile for photographers and a friendly dig for Dick, a thin but chipper Pat Nixon checked out of a Long Beach, Calif., hospital last week, 16 days after suffering a partly paralyzing stroke at nearby San Clemente. Doctors worried about lingering high blood pressure, but said the outlook for a "full or nearly full recovery" was excellent. Flanked by Daughters Tricia Cox and Julie Eisenhower, the former First Lady, 64, waved from her wheelchair and told well-wishers: "I feel fine, but I'm a little frightened about the driver." No need. With a steady hand, the former President guided her safely to a limousine.

"It's making many of her dreams come true," said Larry C. Flynt, 33, self-promoting publisher of the trashy skin mag Hustler, as he announced that he will be married in a Methodist church next month to Althea Leasure, 22, who was indicted with Flynt earlier this year on charges of obscenity and engaging in organized crime. The bride, who is the associate publisher of Hustler, will wear an ivory dress and veil, and her bridesmaids will be in red. The couple will live in a $375,000 Tudor mansion in Bexley, Ohio, a staid suburb of Columbus, where the good citizens have not exactly rolled out the welcome wagon.

In fact, they recently showed up in force at a zoning commission meeting and protested successfully against Flynt's plans to build a wall around his home. On second thought, a wall around the Flynts' pleasure dome might not seem out of place. When a neighbor complained that Flynt was the type who might start offering lollipops to the girls who attend a school across the street from the mansion, he enthusiastically endorsed the notion. "I'll probably be out there on the first day of school, giving them out," he said. "That's how I get my kicks."

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It was, no doubt, the fulfillment of many a barber's fantasy. Into the shop came Ringo Starr, covered, as always, with hair. First he wanted his beard taken off, then his mustache. Then Ringo said, "Might as well keep goin'." When the deed was done—in Monaco, where Ringo now lives—the 36-year-old ex-Beatle percussionist was as hairless as a drum. The star was nervous at first, but he quickly found his baldness an advantage. "It's cooler, like," he explained. "This Riviera sun was goin' to me brain."

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"I'm just an ordinary woman from a ranch who wants to see the amazing agricultural development in this arid land." Thus did Lady Bird Johnson, widow of the 36th President of the U.S., describe herself at the start of a six-day visit to Israel last week. One of the first objectives for Lady Bird and daughters Lynda Robb and Luci Nugent required a two-mile hike over dirt paths through Independence Forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Their destination: a wooded area dedicated to Lyndon Baines Johnson, where Lady Bird planted a pine sapling and Luci watered it. The former First Lady also met with Israeli President Ephraim Katzir and dropped in at the Hebrew University Library. Being a good guest, Lady Bird observed: "There are more books in Jerusalem on my husband than in Washington."

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