release - he came down to the hotel lobby

release - he came down to the hotel lobby where I was sitting with some of his young supporters. Of course we cheered for our defeated hero, and many urged him to break from the Democratic Party and form a third party. McCarthy did not respond to that suggestion one way or the other. I was the only person so far as I know in that space that had any connection with the press, and I went from there to Scripps-Howard headquarters and wrote a brief piece about his supporters urging McCarthy to form a third party. It went out over the ScrippsHoward wire with my byline - a chance occurrence that eventually led me to the editor’s chair at the Rappahannock News.

Following the convention I went on to work for the Washington Daily News - the Scripps-Howard paper in Washington, D.C. - the Kilpatricks made plans for building their Rappahannock home White Walnut Hill, and Gene McCarthy went back to a seat in the U.S. Senate.

In the summer of 19691 became engaged to Sean Kilpatrick, oldest son of James J. and Marie P. Kilpatrick, and we were married in October. The Kilpatrick’s new house was completed around Christmas of that year. I am not sure how soon after that Gene McCarthy started coming out for visits, but I remember evenings with him at Kilpatricks. Some time - perhaps in the 70s or 80s Kilpatnck and McCarthy hatched the plan of jointly creating a political bestiaiy. There has been some mention of a bestiary by Gene in the obits, but that was the second one, the Old Sperryville Bookshop even has copies of it. The first one was written by both men, conceived of over glasses of probably Irish whiskey and illustrated by Jeff MacNelly. I remember conversations about politicians “on the horns of a dilemma” and discussions of what the “dilemma” might look like and what sort of horns it might have. I believe it was this project that introduced Jeff MacNelly to Rappahannock.

By the time those discussions were occurring I believe Gene was either actively looking for a place in