HOPEFULS' HELPMATES

The women behind the men who are under the gun:

Helen Stevenson-Meyner, 30 dark-haired daughter of Ohio's Oberlin College president, met New Jersey's bachelor governor when he was visiting her parents two years ago, married him in January 1957. She is slowly losing her early shyness, dutifully turns up at official fetes, fairs and fund-raising projects, plays tireless hostess for frequent luncheons, dinners and sightseeing tours at the gubernatorial mansion. She campaigned with her husband at election time but gave few speeches, has made a pincushion out of the back seat of the Meyners' state-owned Cadillac. "These women come up to me with these flowers and they all seem to stick me in the chest when they pin them on me. I keep the pins as souvenirs." Says she: "We're not bitten by the presidential bug."

Bernice Layne Brown, 49, married California's Governor-elect Pat Brown in 1930, has four children, two grandchildren. Never intensely interested in politics, she hugged the background until Pat announced for the gubernatorial race. She did not approve of his running, much less the prospect of leaving their Forest Hill home in San Francisco for the Governor's mansion in Sacramento, but she jumped into the campaign with surprising verve, even left her sickbed (phlebitis) against doctors' orders to make the election-night rounds with him. Gifted with lively wit, Bernice Brown showed a great talent for joshing her husband out of taking himself too seriously and soothing hurt egos among quarreling members of the inner political family.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, 28, comes from a socialite Republican family (the late Manhattan Financier John V. Bouvier III), got a socialite's education, was inquiring photographer for the Washington Post and Times-Herald when she met Jack Kennedy "over the asparagus" at a dinner party in 1951. They were married at a big Newport blowout (700 guests) in September 1953, have an infant daughter. Although she traveled with her husband during the last campaign ("Some days we would shake 2,500 to 3,000 hands"), Jackie tried to avoid making speeches, prefers a homebody's life.

Muriel Fay Buck Humphrey, 46, as typically calm and warm as Senator Hubert Humphrey is bouncy and brash. Married in 1936 ("It was love at first waltz"), Muriel has always been politically obliging (she turned up on TV's Masquerade Party dressed as Minnehaha). In 1954 she started the Minnesota Women for Humphrey (neighborhood coffee parties, etc.). She has been mistaken at times for Mamie Eisenhower (who once told her: "How nice and well-behaved your bangs are"), puts politics second to keeping her family (four children, aged ten to 20) together, says: "You can't be a social butterfly and a good mother."

Evelyn Wadsworth Symington, 54, is another who comes from an old-line Republican family (her grandfather: Secretary of State John Hay). She met Stu Symington when he was a Yale student, married him in 1924, has two sons, five grandchildren. During the Depression, she became a supper-club singer in Manhattan (The Very Thought of You, Can I Forget You, My Romance), gave it up when the family moved on to St. Louis. She worked hard during her husband's first Missouri senatorial campaign in 1952, took on a hard schedule in 1958. No speechmaker, she has the advantage of wide acquaintanceships in Washington, New York and St. Louis, is an active hostess. "All Missouri." says a friend, "loves Miss Evie." After the Senator's re-election this month, Bess Truman took her aside, confided: "Don't you worry, Evie, campaigning for the presidency is easier than campaigning for Senator--the trips between speeches are longer."

Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, called

"Lady Bird" by her husband and friends, is the daughter of an Alabaman who went to Texas to earn money to finance a medical education, earned $3,000,000 and 20,000 acres of land, forgot about medicine. Lady Bird met Lyndon Johnson in Austin in 1934, dated him next day at the Maverick Cafe, married him two months later, bore him two daughters (eleven and 14). The balance wheel in the life of her high-powered husband, she is the only one who can get him to slack off, sees to it that he will find a good steak in the refrigerator when he comes in late, can produce barbecued spareribs or steaks for four or 40 unexpected guests, or pack his dinner jacket, take it to his Capitol office and wait patiently for him to change for a social appointment. She travels with Lyndon, sometimes pinch-hits for a weary secretary, taking dictation or telephone calls. A smart businesswoman as well, she owns 2,900 acres of Alabama cotton and timberland. controlling interest in four radio and TV stations in Texas. "I wouldn't trade this life for anything," she says. "It's been a front-row seat on the human comedy."

*Adlai's third cousin by marriage on the maternal side; the name Stevenson is a coincidence.

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