Wednesday, Sept. 25, 1963 University Daily Kansan
Page 5
KUGuests Prove Famous People Congenial
By Linda Machin Society Editor
A scholarship that pays a KU student to meet famous people?
As incredible as it may sound, it's true. Each year a woman graduate student is granted the guesthouse scholarship and becomes official hostess for the University.
As a recipient of the scholarship, the hostess and her roommate live in a small basement apartment of the vine-covered University guesthouse
BARBARA LESHER, Wichita graduate student who was hostess last year, recalled the names of past campus visitors who have stayed overnight at the guesthouse. Among them were internationally known writers, ambassadors, senators, and heads of such government associations as Peace Corps and NASA, and various foreign officials.
"ABOUT FIVE years ago, before he was president, John F. Kennedy stayed here and spoke on campus," she said.
"What really amazed me is how appreciative these people are." Miss Lesher said. "We really don't do that much for them—just greet them at the door when faculty members bring them to the house, serve them coffee, toast, and orange juice for breakfast and talk with them when we have time."
Though no longer the hostess herself, Miss Lesher still lives at the guesthouse and helps her roommate Judy Reider, who now holds the scholarship. She told of an incident last year with a German official from a university in Munich.
"DR. FRIEDMANN wrote out a special certificate of merit on his official university stationery for Judy because she had sewed a button on his coat," Miss Lesher said.
In scroll-like letters, the certificate read: This certifies that Miss Reider sewed one button on my almost best suit.
"And later" she laughed, "when Judy and I were making chocolate
sundaes in the kitchen, he stuck his finger in the chocolate sauce then smudged it on the certificate, thus giving it his official seal, he said."
Miss Lesher said that she had enjoyed her job as university hostess the past year because she was constantly reminded that famous people are just as human as everyone else.
"FOR INSTANCE, the thing I remember most about Arnold Toynble was how sweet and courteous he was to his wife," she said.
She told of the actress who played the part of Joan of Arc in a university play who had received frequent telephone calls from her husband in New York. The last time he called he told her of their plans to fly directly to the White House in Washington for a benefit performance. The actress became quite upset because she hadn't the right clothes with her and was afraid that her husband wouldn't bring the right ones.
Pointing to a window in the living room, she told of another guest who lost his key to the house and had to crawl in through the window.
"Ever since then we haven't been able to keep that window closed," she said. "It just pops back up."
"I GUESS he had forgotten that we were living right downstairs," she said. "He was a very large man. I don't know how he did it."
Calling attention to the furniture. Miss Lesher said that the house had been furnished with valuable antiques by the art museum. The house itself was built with the rock left over after building Watkins Hall.
"Mrs. Watkins didn't want to waste the rock so she provided it for this house," explained Miss Lesher.
The guests always rave about the house, she said. One guest who had visited college campuses all over the nation, said it is by far the nicest accommodations he had had. Many universities house their guests in rooms in their student union or in faculty members' homes.
DESPITE THE fact that the guest house is surrounded by several scholarship halls and a fraternity and
soriority house, the guests have never complained of the noise. "The chancellor's dog used to make more noise than the students," she said.
Several of the visitors, she noted, could hear a bell tinkling at night and had asked what it was. "They all seemed quite amused when I explained to them that it is a bell the Kappas ring in the parking lot to remind the girls of closing," she laughed.
her education. I've learned so much from the people I've met."
Miss Lesher, who says that her work as university hostess didn't hinder her from working on her thesis, will complete her graduate work in October. 'It's a wonderful opportunity for a woman to add to
HUMANITIES lecturers, candidates being interviewed for University positions, and members of the board of regents have all been guests in the past year.
"Eric Heller knew Robert Frost personally, and Ambassador Boland from Ireland, knows James Joyce personally."
Becoming nostalgic about leaving the guest house, Miss Lesher said,
"Living here, sometimes you forget to be a student. When there are no guests here we are allowed full use of the house." She recalled winter evenings spent in front of the fireplace roasting marshmallows.
APPARENTLY, the guest house visitors as well as Miss Lesher have had no trouble in making themselves feel at home. Miss Lesher told of a morning when she had baked a pie to take to a party in the afternoon. She left the pie to cool on the top of the stove. Later she returned to discover that nearly a third of the pie was gone with a note in its place which read: "Thanks so much for baking the pie, Miss Lesher, it was delicious."
"I didn't have time to bake another pie," she said, "so I just took the half-eaten pie and the note from the guest to the party."
101
these fellows sure have a
good taste —
broke in to steal the
diebolt's label
Thieves were busy overnight in Lawrence, with three burglaries reported during the period. One break-in netted between $7,000 and $10,000 in clothing... Lawrence police officers were called to Diebolt's Clothing Store, 843 Mass. St., at 11:03 p.m. Friday after store manager Lester Scott found the back door to the store broken open. Scott estimated that $7,000 to $10,000 worth of sweaters, suits and sports coats had been taken.
When You're In Doubt, Try It Out—Kansan Classified