Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 7, 1993 TAG: 9301070107
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY NUSSBAUM ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Long
FIRST LADY IS A MAESTRO
WHEN SHE married the millionaire who governs West Virginia, Rachael Worby did not foresee that she was in for a personality clash, not with her husband but with the varied constituency of this Bible Belt state. How does a New Yorker with great talent make it? With great difficulty.
She conducts at Carnegie Hall for a week every year. She has guest-conducted some of the nation's finest orchestras with passion and perfection. She has taken classical music into the crannies of her adopted state.
But she is also married to West Virginia's governor, and therein lies the rub.
Her critics characterize her as a pushy, arrogant New Yorker, an activist in everything she does - just not what many West Virginians think a first lady should be. For instance, she wouldn't take her husband's name.
But Rachael Worby has defied convention and thrived in separate worlds where critics abound.
The same drive that brought her kudos on the stage and in the halls of power has produced its share of slings and arrows from many directions.
Since marrying Democratic Gov. Gaston Caperton in May 1990, Worby has been assailed for snuggling with the governor in public.
She has been accused of yelling obscenities at a state trooper and kicking another.
Some people say she has a superior "New York attitude." Some talk about her clothes, her taste, even her hair.
"I've spent many nights sobbing myself to sleep since I met Gaston, sobbing myself awake, sobbing through breakfast and sobbing through lunch," Worby says.
"Half the people don't know how deeply I feel this stuff. Gaston is the only one who knows."
Caperton, a millionaire insurance executive, says it pains him more when the criticism is leveled at his bride.
"I think to attack me is OK and to attack her is unfair," he says.
But, he concedes that is the price of taking charge.
"I think anybody who is in a leadership position and is aggressively trying to do something has detractors," Caperton says. "If someone doesn't have detractors, they aren't doing anything."
Those who know her best say Worby became first lady carrying plenty of baggage.
Worby, 52, and Caperton, 43, married within a year of his highly publicized divorce from Dee Caperton, a well-liked Kanawha County legislator who many say pointed him to the Governor's Mansion in 1989.
Many West Virginians see Worby, a native of Nyack, N.Y., as an out-of-towner and "the second wife."
Nearly six months after Worby married Caperton, a poll showed West Virginians still preferred Dee Caperton as West Virginia's first lady. The situation also got sticky when Dee Caperton unsuccessfully ran for state treasurer in the May 1990 primary and the governor lined up Democratic allies against her.
But most of the people who talk negatively about Worby won't talk at all if their names are used.
"Here's a woman who's Jewish in a Bible Belt, who wants to be more than the governor's wife," said an administration official who declined to be identified. "It's difficult for people to accept her in total. People would accept her very easily as Rachael Worby and symphony conductor, or people would accept her as just first lady, but not together."
Worby is music director and conductor of Carnegie Hall's Educational Concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra. She held the same titles for seven years with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.
She has guest-conducted with the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Seattle, Pittsburgh and San Diego symphonies.
Since she joined the Wheeling Symphony, its budget has tripled to nearly $1 million and ticket sales have mushroomed.
"She is an extremely dynamic woman who has energy to burn and has done a tremendous amount to put the Wheeling Symphony on the map," said Laura Willumsen, executive director of the symphony.
Worby has taken the symphony on the road, bringing classical music to the tiniest hollows of West Virginia.
"Rachael is absolutely adamant that what we're doing is helping people discover classical music," Willumsen said. "She is very wonderful at taking down the traditional barrier to symphony music."
Willumsen said the orchestra was in danger of being shut down before Worby came, but now it is the strongest it has ever been.
"She tends to attract all the praise and all the blame, but no situation in life is black-and-white. She's the type of flamboyant personality that people just want to pin everything on and it's just not that simple," Willumsen said.
Beyond trombones and truffles, Worby also has founded an Arts and Letter Series which brings notables to Charleston to provide free concerts and lectures.
Last year, she launched a campaign to solicit donations to fight illiteracy. Though the campaign fell short of its $1 million goal, she says it allowed her to travel the state and become acquainted with the "interior hunger" of West Virginians.
"It's about . . . not feeling value or valuable. I'm entering their lives through passion, giving something else to their lives," she says. "People are unable to move forward in their lives unless they're sated."
Worby says her dual careers are a successful mix, albeit a hectic one.
"I feel both worlds complement each other," she says. "The orchestra is my greatest platform for social change."
However, she does draw a line between maestro and first lady.
"It's me completely that you see on the podium," she says. "I bring every single thing I own with me to the podium. My dedication, my passion, my discipline, my focus, my charisma, my joy, my despair."
Not so when on the political stage where, she says, "all that vulnerability" could be painful.
For example, The Charleston Gazette reported in September that several state policemen assigned to the governor's security detail would be requesting transfers because of Worby.
Worby reportedly lost her temper and yelled obscenities at Trooper 1st Class J.C. Spriggs for not fielding a phone call.
In addition, Worby reportedly kicked the head of security, 1st Sgt. Randy Blevins, on a helicopter flight from Charleston to Bluefield. Worby reportedly was upset because Blevins didn't tell the pilots she was scared because of turbulence.
A few days later, Blevins said Worby was a nervous flier and did not intentionally kick him.
"In her apprehension to find out the cause of the lurching, she repeatedly nudged my knee with her foot to encourage me to ask the pilots what was happening," he said.
Just before the election, it was reported that Worby was registered as an independent despite having served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and having voted for Caperton in the Democratic primary.
"I assume I'm registered a Democrat," Worby said. "I really can't remember how I'm registered. Anybody who has the time to wonder how I'm registered to vote leads a life of great luxury."
She said she served as a delegate as a matter of protocol and she does not get involved in the governor's decisions.
"Gaston and I talk about our days and our lives as any people do," she said, but that is where it ends.
Apart from the critics, Worby has her supporters.
Charleston Daily Mail Publisher Terry Horne publicly upbraided one of his columnists this fall for repeatedly criticizing Worby. Horne said Worby had urged him to intervene on behalf of fairness.
Worby says many West Virginians, like other Americans, have had a hard time accepting a political wife with a career unrelated to her husband's. She likens herself to Hillary Clinton. Strength and independence can be a threat, she says.
"It probably doesn't sit too well with people. I think I'm a moving target," she said.
"I feel very much loved by West Virginians.
"I obviously don't feel very loved by a couple of gossip columnists, and that comes with the territory."