Medford mail tribune., January 22, 1961, Image 34

- Family Weekly January 22, 1961
THE UNTOLD STORY OF
General Mac Arthur Family Man
Victory and defeat, honor and humiliation this history maker has known them all,
yet he has never failed in his most cherished role as husband and father
By FLORA RHETA SCHREIBER
IN the six-room presiden
tial suite of the Waldorf
Astoria Towers in New York
City, General of the Armies
Douglas MacArthur lives far
from public view, as he has
for the past nine years.
On the occasion of his ap
proaching 81st birthday, Jan.
26, let us lift the curtain and
look in on him for a few
moments, the retired, embittered national hero
and the considerate husband-father.
The MacArthur apartment qonsists of a living
room some 70 feet long, three bedrooms, a dining
room, and a maid's room. The MacArthur family
has put down roots here and made it home. "Here's
where we lighted," the General told his wife Jean
that day in 1951 when, after a 14-year absence
from their native land, they first came home, "and
here's where we'll stay."
The furniture is hotel furniture. The only per
sonal touch is reflected in beautiful Japanese
screens, in the silver vases that are the gift of the
Emperor of Japan, in a few objets d'art sent by
Japanese friends, and in the gold cigarette case
that MacArthur's World War I staff gave him as
a token of affection. But the apartment has no
trophies, no medals, no military decorations.
Living with the General are his wife, Jean Fair-
cloth MacArthur, 20 years his junior, and their
only child, Arthur, who is 22. Arthur is 5 feet, 10
inches, straight, slim, very dark.
There, too, is Ah Cheu, once Arthur's amah who
has been with the family since the dark days of
Bataan and Corregidor.
The MacArthur trio has always been closely
knit. Once, Mrs. MacArthur told Mrs. Manuel
Quezon, wife of the then-president of the Philip
pines who had pleaded with Mrs. MacArthur to
take her young son and join the Quezons in leav
ing besieged Corregidor:
"We will stay with the General. We three are
one. We drink of the same cup."
Tall, erect, alert, MacArthur impresses his friends
as having changed little in the past 20 years. In
stead of the familiar uniform, he appears in con
servative brown and gray tweeds when friends and
, business associates call on him in the suite. Morn
ings and evenings, he enjoys wearing his West
Point blanket with the letter "A" (for Army)
boldly embossed.
He no longer smokes his famous corncob pipe.
Instead, he uses an ordinary pipe or smokes an
occasional cigar. He eats heartily and'rarely drinks.
For exercise, he walks up and down his living
room for a half hour at a time. The walking serves
a double purpose. As has always been his habit,
he thinks things out as he paces.
His life is centered in the apartment. Here as
chairman of the board of the Sperry Rand Corp.
he holds consultations" and committee meetings.
Herbert Hoover is the only person he visits. The
ex-President also lives at the Towers, but Mac
Arthur calls on him only a few times a year. He
maintains his old attitude towards the ex-President
slightly deferential because Mr. Hoover
was once his Commander in Chief.
General MacArthur leaves the apartment to at
tend St. Bartholomew's (Episcopal) Church with
his wife and son, or for special occasions like the
boy's graduation from the Buckley and Browning
schools. Sometimes, too, he just takes a walk with
his old friend and aide, Gen. Courtney Whitney.
He Has Remained Vigorous
For the most part, the General has enjoyed good
health for his age possibly because he wills it so.
Even last year, when an almost fatal illness struck
him, he refused to recognize its existence, or seek
medical help until the night of Jan. 29. Then he
was so gravely ill that there was no longer any
choice. When he was told that he had to be hos
pitalized, he refused to be taken out of the apart
ment in a stretcher or a wheel chair. Walking
between General Whitney and Dr. George W.
Slaughter, he insisted upon going to the car under
his own power.
Later, when he was under sedation and hospital
attendants were wheeling him out of his room, he
The General's son Arthur is in the company of
lovely Wendy Vanderbit at a social function.
General MacArthur leaves Now York hospital after his rocont suc
cessful operation for removal of a gland. He is with his wife can.
Family Wcclcli. January 22, 1961
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1 - I
At home, the General plays host to a Tokyi