The Lives Of Kathleen Willey

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Through legal maneuvering, Willey has avoided having to assume her husband's debts. According to information Willey provided her creditors, her children "loan" her a monthly stipend of roughly $4,500, and she pays a considerably below-market rent to her husband's best friend for the home on six acres in which she now lives.

Since leaving the White House in 1994, Kathleen Willey's day-to-day life has become hand-to-mouth. She has worked as a receptionist at a Richmond hair salon. During the 1996 presidential campaign, Willey was in the middle of a four-month stint at the city's Montana Gold Bread Co., a place she used to patronize. With a T shirt, an apron and a bandanna, she was responsible for the cinnamon rolls early in the day and later for muffins, kneading bread and waiting on the clientele. "I thought she might be a snob at first when she was a customer," recalls Jason Lord, one of her many college-age co-workers, "but she was a very good person." Kenneth Starr certainly considers her an asset, granting her immunity before her grand-jury testimony. That will insulate her from perjury charges for any lies she may have told in her deposition to Paula Jones' lawyers and may help protect her from prosecution in connection with any financial or tax improprieties. All she has to worry about now is making ends meet.

--Reported by Melissa August and John F. Dickerson/Richmond and Viveca Novak/Washington