Such is her fascination with American politics that Correspondent Bonnie Angelo has covered the walls of her Washington home with a collection of 19th century memorabilia ranging from fraying presidential campaign handkerchiefs to a pair of dinner plates from Zachary Taylor's White House. Angelo professes no political ambitions, but in a reverse twist, some of the presidential wives she has known are confessed journalism buffs who have devoted long hours of their private time to chronicling the history they watched and often helped make. "Lady Bird Johnson recorded her experiences almost every night," recalls Angelo, "and Pat Nixon kept careful notes." When Angelo asked Betty Ford if she planned an account of her stay in the White House, the First Lady replied, "I'll leave that up to you, Bonnie."

For this week's cover story, Angelo took Mrs. Ford at her word. In a one-hour interview last Wednesday in the family quarters of the White House, they talked about the pressures and strains that are a constant and sometimes troubling feature of marriage to a political leader. Their meeting took place only a day before doctors detected what proved to be a malignancy in Mrs. Ford's right breast. Saturday, Angelo stationed herself at Bethesda Naval Hospital and closely followed the First Lady's medical progress.

A firsthand observer of five presidencies and a TIME correspondent since 1966, Angelo has done a major share of the reporting for TIME'S past four Gerald Ford cover stories. Well-versed in the family hazards of high office, she notes that the demands in a political marriage are increasing all the time. "But none of the stresses are new ones; it's just that the disappearance of the stereotype of the politician's wife makes her problems easier to examine today."

While Angelo conducted additional interviews with other prominent--and emerging--political wives in Washington, TIME correspondents elsewhere pursued the sometimes elusive, sometimes reclusive spouses of other well-known politicians.

The story was written by Associate Editor Edwin Warner and researched by Alexandra Rich. Author of TIME'S Nelson Rockefeller cover story (Sept. 2), and of many major Nation stories on Gerald Ford, Warner himself is no stranger to political pressures, having served as campaign manager of a powerful New York City political club. Almost fatally bitten by the political bug, Warner finally chucked the idea of running for office. Why? In large part because his wife would have none of it.

Ralph P. Davidson

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