FABULOUS AT 50...REALLY!

By RATU KAMLANI AND AISHA LABI/NEW YORK

ISABEL ALLENDE, 55

The most recent book of the Chilean-born author (The House of the Spirits) is Paula, a memoir based on the death of her only daughter at age 28.

When I reached 50, I couldn't celebrate. It was the same year that my daughter was dying. I was totally absorbed with what was going on, and I didn't even notice my birthday. But when we reach this age, we become witches in a way, good witches. We have wisdom, we have a network, we have a sort of secret strength that we can use for good causes. We are not so distracted as we were by motherhood, by being attractive, by the sexual energy that was there indiscriminately. We can focus better, and we have this strength that is so extraordinary. Have you noticed that men in their 60s, who would correspond to us, are not interesting? They are just very boring. The really interesting men are the men who were raised by feminists. But they're much younger than we are. When I look around, I'm very happy that I have a husband, because I wouldn't know whom to reach for.

I don't make plans for the future. I don't know how life is going to be at 60. I don't care. I've done everything I came to do. I've had children, grandchildren, lovers, husbands; I still have my mother, I have friends, and that's it. What else?

JUDITH JAMISON, 54

The artistic director and choreographer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is in the middle of a world tour.

You can assess your life at 50, but why not assess at 60? The more I assess, the more I realize the more I have to do. There is always somebody ahead of you. It's always someone who has had just a little more experience, someone you can learn from. But what's nice about being 50 is the beat, the rhythm, the movement. Nobody's stopped.

BILLIE JEAN KING, 53

The tennis great runs World Team Tennis, a coed pro league, and still competes on the Virginia Slims Legends tour.

I think 50 now is what 35 used to be. It's a great age, the best. Spiritually and emotionally you get stronger. You're in a much better place. If you talk to anybody at 50 and over, or even around 46 and 47, a central theme that keeps coming up is simplify, simplify, simplify. In your youth you run around like crazy. A lot of people run around obtaining material possessions, and by the time they're 50 they want to get rid of most of them. When I was 11 I wanted to be the best player in the world and change the sport of tennis. I did that. Most everything I set out to do, I did. The only thing different is that I thought I would have children. I do not. I think I'm O.K. about it. I've been in and out on that one. But in some ways I have more time to help kids, and I've got some favorite kids in my life, so it's fine.

FAYE WATTLETON, 54

President of Planned Parenthood for 14 years, she now heads the Center for Gender Equality. She admits to seeing a plastic surgeon and increasing workout routines.

Yes, I was trying to hold on to every element of my youth--by the way, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It should not connote disrespect for aging. I think if we can retard the process of aging, the quality of life is improved, because age does bring with it certain changes. I did not have any cataclysmic experiences when I turned 50. However, I had not expected to be as settled down and as peaceful about myself as I believe I am now. Things sort of fall into place. Those qualities and strengths that carried us through our 20s, 30s and 40s are even better, they're even stronger.

GLADYS KNIGHT, 53

The singer (Midnight Train to Georgia) had three marriages, the last ending suddenly this summer. She recently published a memoir, Between Each Line of Pain and Glory: My Life Story.

I'm somewhere now where I know that my life is going to be generating the happiness I so desire. It's about me; it's not about Les, not about Jimmy, not about Barry [her three husbands]. It's about Gladys' having her spirit right and walking in the light she's supposed to walk in. And our Heavenly Father has given us a promise that if we all do that, he will pour us out a blessing. That's already started to happen in my life. I was rebaptized in the Mormon faith Aug. 11. It's a wonderful revelation. I can't say there won't be a partner in my life. I want one. That right person will come into my life.

ELIZABETH MURRAY, 57

The contemporary painter is the mother of three and lives in New York City.

As you turn 50, you realize that your future is shrinking, that there's more past than there is future. Before, it was almost as if you were a perpetual adolescent in a way. Adolescence is a tough period of time--you feel that you're going to be in this horrible state forever; you have no prospects, no hope. I find being in my 50s a lot easier. You have experience; you know that things are always changing. I'm not disappointed in myself--I wanted to be an artist, and I am an artist. I don't feel I've got to where I want to get. Some people do get it in their 50s, but it hasn't happened for me. I feel like I've got a lot to look forward to. I still have hope.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, 54

The historian just published Wait till Next Year, about growing up in New York in the 1950s.

It wasn't so much turning 50 that had an impact as much as my youngest child's going off to college. I can understand exactly what Hillary is going through. The structure of your day, if you have that relationship, is rounded by the kids. You are so accustomed to the morning when they go off, you're constantly aware of when they come home from school, you're connected to their friends. Especially if other parts of your life are complicated, as I'm sure they were for Hillary, this must have been the one thing she could always hold on to. I remember when other things troubled me, I felt as long as I can think about the kids, I'll be able to sleep tonight.

PATTI SMITH, 50

The "godmother of punk" lost her husband to heart failure in November 1994, and her brother died of a stroke a month later.

I had deeply low periods in the past few years--seeing my closest friend [photographer] Robert Mapplethorpe unfortunately contract AIDS in the prime of his life. He did everything he possibly could to beat his card. But he worked right to the end, and whenever I feel like life got a little tough on me, I always zero in on him or others who cherished their life force and fought to keep it. They did die young, and I find it my duty either to continue to tell people about them or to honor them in my work. People who do good work have a certain glow; for instance, someone like Audrey Hepburn got more and more beautiful, right to her death. I just braid my hair. I haven't done anything about the gray.

--Reported by Ratu Kamlani and Aisha Labi/New York