There were 350 people in the Atrium of Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the fourth annual Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards lunch --and the Kennedys dominated them all. Teddy, with his sisters Eunice Shriver and Jean Smith, were magnets to the old Kennedy hands, and Ethel, who had broken her leg while skiing, joked in a wheelchair. Kathleen (R.F.K.'s eldest) was the quintessential Radcliffe girl in granny glasses and flowing hair. Eldest son Joe--being nudged more and more into the family spotlight--gracefully presented bronze busts of his father to the winners. But it was the indomitable 81-year-old Rose who out-Kennedyed them all. After catnapping ever so lightly through some of the preliminaries, she rose to speak for the family. "I feel a little like old wine," she mused in that throaty voice. "My family keeps me stored away until there's a special occasion!"

Russian Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was impressed by the Apollo 16 launch, but what really grabbed him was his visit to the launch pad the night before, accompanied by Apollo 15 Astronaut David Scott and a bottle of champagne. He forgot to open the bottle, so moved was he by "the white, tender body of the rocket, supported by the clumsy, tender hands of its red tower. It was like big brother embracing his sister before going a long way. It was a great impression." And that was not all. The tower was also "a sea crab that accidentally found on the bottom of the sea a rare and unusual white pearl it was holding in its clumsy claw." According to Yevtushenko, Astronaut Scott exclaimed: "It's absolutely what I feel, but I didn't express it." -

He is Prudent who is Patient is the motto of the British House of Leicester. So patient was the second Earl of Leicester that he spent all of his 67 years in the House of Lords waiting for something to say. His son, the third Earl was equally silent for 32 years. The fourth Earl kept up the family tradition, but the legendary Leicester patience has at last run out. The present Earl, 63-year-old Thomas William Edward Coke has risen after only 22 years of silence to make his maiden speech. His subject: pollution. "I hope we shall use safer chemicals in place of those which have devastated the countryside," he said. -

"As a foster child of ten, I dreamed that someday I would be the guest of honor at just such an affair, talking about the struggles of my childhood and how I overcame them. I particularly liked the part in my dreams when I gave myself a standing ovation." Humorist Art Buchwald, 46, was telling it like it had been to the sesquicentennial brunch of New York's Jewish Child Care Association. His fantasy that he was really a Rothschild who had been kidnaped by gypsies didn't quite come true, but as a columnist for the Paris Herald Tribune, "I lived it up with the international set, sailed on Onassis' yacht, played roulette with King Farouk and danced until dawn with the Duchess of Windsor." And at the end of his speech, he did get that standing ovation. -

Aristotle Onassis was unhappy when his 20-year-old daughter, Christina, married 47-year-old Los Angeles Land Developer Joe Bolker seven months ago. Daddy Onassis was happy when they separated, and she got engaged to 29-year-old German automotive heir Otto Flick last month--at least he sounded happy when he announced the engagement and gave the couple a bang-up bash at Maxim's. But is Christina happy? Parisians are wondering whether the Flick flame is flickering--noting that, while Christina is seen around town a lot these nights, it is with various other escorts, such as Brazilian Paolo Ferrari.

In the morning, he conducted a three-hour rehearsal of the American Symphony Orchestra at Manhattan's Carnegie Hall. In the afternoon, he studied music scores. In the evening, he went to the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel for his party. Leopold Stokowski, who only recently acknowledged the five years he had subtracted in middle age, was officially 90 years old. Musical headliners were on hand to pay "Stoky" tribute, and Dmitry Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian and Leonard Bernstein provided small compositions. Among the 350 guests were Stoky's five children by his three wives--the late Olga Samaroff, the former Evangeline Johnson and the former Gloria Vanderbilt--and four of his nine grandchildren. -

"It is not good that the man should be alone," the Lord God said of Adam, "I will make him an help meet for him." British Laborite M.P. Leslie Huckfield feels the same way about Bachelor Prime Minister Edward Heath; he has raised a question in the House of Commons asking why Heath does not appoint an official hostess to preside at his dinner table and accompany him to official functions. "I feel a bit sorry for Mr. Heath," he says. "The bloke would be much better with a few birds around." Suggestions and propositions for the Prime Minister have followed fast. The Park Lane Escort Agency (200 girls) has offered to waive its .$32.50 fee, and ten patients in Wallasey Hospital for Women have proposed Nurse Marjorie Rowbotham. But the P.M. is not responding. He seems to be mindful of what happened to Adam.

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