Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994 TAG: 9401150049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
She calls him "Maverick" and "Sparky."
"Those are the only two publishable names I call him," says Susan Brown Allen.
At noon today, when George Allen takes the oath as governor of Virginia, they will become Virginia's First Family, and Susan Allen hopes, the Ward and June Cleaver of our time.
"I think as much as we find ourselves in a position as a family to be up for criticism or public review, I hope and I think it's possible for us to be set up as a good, positive role model for people," she said. "That it's OK to be a very square family, happily married with two kids. That there's no problem with that."
She's only 32, but while records are a bit uncertain on the point, Susan Allen apparently won't be the Old Dominion's youngest First Lady.
"I think many people see me as a direct link to George, so anything I do or say is a reflection of him. Which is fine with me. I think he and I are very much in sync on ideas," she said.
Already she has tap-danced through some mine fields. And already she has set off a few minor explosions.
She settled on a public school, but one in a distant Richmond suburb, for the couple's 5-year-old daughter. And she complained to doctors at the Massey Cancer Center at the Medical College of Virginia that a disproportionate amount of money is going to AIDS research. "I thought that was reported incorrectly. . ." she said in an interview this week. "I wasn't favoring one [type of research] or the other. My question was what the deal was with AIDS research getting more money than cancer research.
"I was being the ears for George. I was going to carry those messages back for George. Anything I do, hopefully, is research or support for issues that are not only of concern to me, but to George."
While she clearly is strong and articulate, Susan Allen projects a subordinance more characteristic of the TV moms of yesteryear than women of the '90s.
"He's the mastermind of everything," she says of her husband of 7 1/2 years. She prefers being the "sidekick."
"I love being able to get out of the kitchen when it gets too hot. If George is stuck on a tough issue, I can say, `Adios.' "
Despite such talk, there seems not to be a reticent bone in her body.
"I'm lucky and fortunate enough to have a husband who respects me and respects my ideas. . . . There's very little we don't discuss. I will be very involved. I've always been a pretty strong individual, and never worried about voicing my opinions on things. And I will continue to do so."
She wants to push tourism, which she sees as an extension of economic development, drug intervention and children's issues.
Already she has met with Colonial Williamsburg officials and Virginia tourism brass to figure out where she'll fit in. She wants to make commercials to promote family getaways in Virginia. The ads would feature a series of First Family visits to scenic areas and would be targeted at young mothers.
"Studies have shown that women in family households are usually the ones making the decision on where they're going for vacation," she said. "And I think when you're marketing, you've got to remember that and gear it to that audience."
Susan's balance of homemaking and influence-wielding apparently has tugged at her relationship with her mother-in-law, Etty, who has firsthand experience with living in the public eye as the widow of football coaching legend George H. Allen.
Etty Allen "sympathizes with me and empathizes with me on what I go through, her husband being very wrapped up in his career, being gone quite a bit, being sort of the stabilizing factor in your household, dealing with the press . . ." Susan said. "The whole family grew up reading about their Dad or husband everyday."
Etty's advice to her:
"Keep your poise. Don't let the `blanks' get you down."
Blanks?
"Etty's always the lady. I would never repeat. . . . "
But, she said, there is perhaps a "generational thing" that causes Etty to question her so-public participation in George's political career.
"I think she has a difficult time understanding how active I want to be in this role," Susan said. "I think she just doesn't understand there are ways I can help, things I can do."
Occupied in March 1913, Virginia's Governor's Mansion is the oldest, continuously lived-in executive mansion in the country. It will give the Allens more space than their rustic, log home in Earlysville.
"It's just a very comfortable home that's on top of a museum," Susan Allen observed. "It's almost like living in an apartment over your store."
The change will be phenomenal for the Allens, who exude a sort of "Green Acres" charm - she, the sophisticate, and he, "faux country," wearing cowboy boots and chewing tobacco.
Reared in Northern Virginia and then Albemarle County, she is the middle of three children born to a former Marine pilot who she says was so frugal, he almost prepared her for George.
She said her husband is "frugal, not stingy. He hates waste. He's just very careful about what is used and what is not used. Eating all the food on your plate that needs to disappear. He's a real stickler for things like that."
Her parents introduced her to George, then a delegate representing Albemarle County. Their first date was a canoe trip down the New River with other legislators. The river was being considered for scenic river designation.
"I thought, `This is great. This is probably the kind of guy I could fall in love with.' And probably did, on that river."
In some ways, he was romantic, Susan said. "Every now and then, he'd stop and pull the pickup over and pick some flowers for me."
He began calling her "Chicory," for the blue wildflowers that grow among the Charlottesville foothills.
They dated for two years and married in 1986. She gave up her job as a substitute teacher to become a politician's wife and later, a mom.
"Our family is very fortunate, not because of the material things we will have living in the governor's house. . . . We are happily married. We have strong, healthy bodies. We have the ability to achieve in life."
Because of that, she said she wants her family, particularly her children, to use the next four years "to give back to the community."
The First Family can become a role model for the commonwealth, she said.
"It's what I found when I campaigned all over Virginia, that people were disgusted with maybe so many special interests out there that we've neglected people who were just trying to be good, honest, hard-working, decent, normal, everyday people who wanted to live a regular, happy marriage with children.
"So I do think the pendulum will swing back to those days, not that any of us want to go back to the Victorian era or become prudish in our thinking, or disregard the facts of what goes on in society.
"But I think we will once again hold up standards that people want to believe in, be they standards from the 1950s when `Leave it to Beaver' and the Cleavers were on. I'm not so sure things were so bad back then."
by CNB