Rumors of failing health follow wherever he goes, but Pope John XXIII, 81, appears to be going everywhere possible. At the start of a busy weekend, he attended twin ceremonies in the Vatican Palace and St. Peter's Basilica, accepting his $160,000 Peace Prize (earmarked for charity) from the Swiss-Italian Balzan Foundation, next day turned up in the Quirinal Palace, where Italian President Antonio Segni presented Balzan awards to other cultural leaders. As he rode through Rome in an open car, the Pontiff --looking thinner than usual--was hailed by crowds crying "Viva! Viva!" . . .

In a special ceremony, the town of Columbus, N. Mex., bestowed honorary citizenship on Mrs. Pancho Villa, 72, now known as Luz Corral and widely acknowledged as the first wife of the oft-married Mexican revolutionary. After a raid by Villa in 1916, Columbus counted 16 dead. But now, said New Mexico's Governor Jack Campbell, "the bitterness of long ago can be forgotten.'' Tearfully, Mrs. Villa accepted a scroll, responding in turn with gifts to the Pancho Villa Museum of Columbus: her husband's field telephone and a $1,000,000 bundle of currency issued at his command. Remaining at her 52-room mansion in Chihuahua City was the bullet-riddled 1920 Dodge in which Villa met his death by assassination in 1923.

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"I wish they would forget about my birthdays; they only make me a year older," said former President Harry S. Truman, turning 79. But a luncheon in Kansas City brought out more than 200 friends, and the grand old man from Independence beamed broadly as the crowd sang Happy Birthday. Highlighting the festivities. President Kennedy phoned to say: "You can outwalk Bobby and outtalk Hubert." It was almost true. Under doctor's orders to cut down his matutinal strolls, Harry still puts in a solid week's work at the Truman Library, attends to piles of correspondence, soon plans to appear in 26 half-hour TV shows delineating his White House years.

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Do you plan aircraft ascensions in the future? Yes. Will you travel outside the continental United States and Canada? Definitely. Thus completing their application forms, the original seven U.S. spacemen took out $100,000 policies with the Aetna Life Insurance Co. of Hartford. Low-bidding Aetna was reluctant to disclose the cost per man, but indicated that it was somewhat more than a 35-year-old military jet pilot would pay (an annual $1,810 standard premium with a $375 surcharge for extra hazard), but still less than steeplejacks. Since the standard premium varies with age, Senior Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., 41, gets the highest bill. The lowest? To Major L. Gordon Cooper, 36, pounding along the beach at Cape Canaveral as a warm-up for his scheduled 22-orbit mission this week, which could be the biggest TV spectacular in many a moon (see SCIENCE).

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Chock-full of tips for hungry readers, table-hopping Columnist Leonard Lyons, 56, wrote: "United Artists is importing 1,000 French tarts to serve with coffee at the premiere of Irma la Douce."' Before the line formed on the right, a U.A. spokesman tongue-in-cheeked: "That's just a little tart story, or vice versa."

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Whistler's Mother occupies a place of honor in the Louvre, and Whistler's Mother-in-Law, Mrs. John Birnie Philip, is at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. But what ever happened to Whistler's Grandmother? Sleuths found the answer just in time for Mother's Day. When he was doing the family portraits. James McNeill Whistler never got around to his maternal grandmum, Mrs. Martha Kingsley McNeill. She was painted, nonetheless, by a pair of itinerant artists from Connecticut, and the 19 1/2 in.; by 24-in. oil that Grandma never liked--all those frills--now contemplates posterity at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.

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Ill Lay: John Gunther, 61. ubiquitous author of Inside books, with phlebitis, at Harkness Pavilion, Manhattan; Mamie Eisenhower, 66, after removal of a benign tumor (lipoma) from her neck, in Walter Reed General Hospital. Washington, D.C.; Baritone Nelson Eddy, 61, hospitalized by pulmonary congestion with viral infection, in Framingham, Mass.

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Some big names will be merged next Aug. 21 when Bride-to-be Stephanie Wanger, 19, daughter of Actress Joan Bennett and Film Producer Walter Wanger, says "I do" to blueblooded Frederick Guest, 25, son of wealthy Socialite Winston Guest. "He is a darling boy," declares Joan. Freddie just describes himself as "self-employed in venture capital." His venturesome formula for bliss with Stephanie includes "an apartment in town and a gatehouse in the country."

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"We are going on sea trials in the normal way." said Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, 63. Then the so-called father of the atomic submarine boarded the Andrew Jackson, first nuclear-powered sub to be tested since the Thresher disaster, and disappeared into the briny off Mare Island, Calif. A Polaris-type ship, the Andrew Jackson went to depths "in excess of 400 feet." carrying with her a psychological burden crucial to the entire U.S. nuclear submarine program. W7hen she returned safely to port some 36 hours later, Rickover issued a terse verdict: "successfully completed initial trials." But Rear Admiral Edward J. Fahy, Mare Island commander, was less restrained: "This is a damned good ship. One of the best we have, if not the best."

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