My story on John Warner who died today...

[Duppers]

4. Wonderful man.

Decades ago, while Senator, he toured a small Methodist college in the eastern part of the state, one where a close friend of ours taught. Warner was still married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time & she was traveling with him.

Story goes that when they were in the college library, Mrs. Taylor/Warner brought her lit cigarette in with her and some brave soul had the temerity to tell her that smoking wasn't allowed in the bldg. Apparently she was quite offended and responded by immediately dropping the cigarette where she was standing and put it out with her foot! This greatly offended them. The story was told for years & made the student paper.

Our friend is a Dem but being quite religious, he still holds socially conservative values as did the staff. Their attitude was women should not smoke, much less in public, especially in their library. I agree, she should've ditched the cigarette before entering the bldg.

The story didn't detract from my respect for Sen. Warner in the least - he was a good person. And I don't think Liz was a bad person - she just wasn't using the wisest judgement there.