Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 5, 1990                   TAG: 9005050331
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEOPLE

Margaret Truman Daniel said she thought O'Connor and Truman, both Independence, Mo., natives, were "tough cookies" and might have been friends except for their discrepancy in age and political leanings.

O'Connor, 60, the first woman appointed to the nation's highest court, is a Republican. Truman, who died in 1982 at age 97, was a staunch Democrat like her husband, Harry Truman.

Daniels praised O'Connor for her "obvious intelligence, diligence and accomplishment."

The award, established earlier this year by an Independence women's group, will be given each year to a nationally recognized woman who has chosen a role appropriate to her time and place in history.

\ Olivia Newton-John decided to throw a little dirt of her own to counter neighborhood complaints that the 6,000-square-foot mansion she is building in Malibu, Calif., constitutes an environmental disaster.

"Dirt and garbage have never been dumped on the beach or in the ocean," the singer said. "Any materials that were temporarily placed during construction were native to the beach, i.e. sand."

Neighbors suing Newton-John and her husband, Matt Lattanzi, claim that trees and plants have been ripped out and beach cliffs destroyed to make room for the $2 million estate.

"This lawsuit represents an environmental tragedy because trees died for the paper that was used to spread false accusations against me," said Newton-John, the Australian-born entertainer who serves as the United Nations' goodwill ambassador for the environment.

Residents who live along the Malibu coastline, however, charge that Newton-John's construction crews have dumped tons of dirt into the ocean and turned the water's edge a murky brown.