Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407110045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALEC KLEIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA LENGTH: Long
Susan Allen glides down the halls of Parliament, paying little heed to the swarm of bodyguards and attendants trailing her every public move.
Thousands of miles from home, she appears at ease in an exotic land - a picture of grace, a soft smile welcoming the camera. Yet in a quiet moment after midnight, away from the orbit of attention, she lowers her guard ever so slightly:
"I have to tell somebody what I'm doing all the time. That's very frustrating. I tried to explain it to my brother the other day. . . . `Remember how when we were very young, and we couldn't wait to get older so we wouldn't have to tell our parents?' "
Few details go unmonitored, unrecorded in the public life of Susan Brown Allen. Of late, even more eyes have been trained on the wife of Virginia's governor.
Last week, Allen returned from a seven-day excursion to sub-Saharan Africa, where she led a delegation of business and administration officials on a trade and tourism mission. Never before has the wife of a Virginia governor crossed continents to lead such a high-profile state visit.
Just six months into her husband's administration, Allen no longer is following the traditional script; at 33, she is taking a more prominent role. A fiercely devoted wife, she sold her husband to voters on the campaign trail last year. Now she's marketing Gov. George Allen's ideas.
"She has skillfully carved out a niche for herself as a saleslady, which she is," said J. Scott Leake, a staff adviser to Republican lawmakers.
"I just try very hard, hopefully, not to make too many blunders," she said.
Allen is a former hotel marketing director from Albemarle County who looks the part of a striking Laura Ashley country belle.
For public consumption, she deftly presents herself as a '90s version of a '50s woman: carving out issues of substance, but keeping her husband and children above all else - with the help of a nanny, cook and butler at the mansion.
She wants to be taken seriously. But she also wants people to think of her She has skillfully carved out a niche for herself as a saleslady, which she is. J. Scott Leake Staff adviser to Republican lawmakers more as a loyal Barbara Bush than as a take-charge Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I have a very unique position," she said. "I'm not actually part of the administration. I do not sign legislation. I do not formulate policy."
But Allen does set a tone.
Despite her want for privacy, she has barnstormed the commonwealth, pushed tourism, crusaded for children's welfare and placed her mark on the governor's mansion.
The stately grounds have been adorned with a lemonade stand and swing set for her two children, 6-year-old Tyler and 3-year-old Forrest. Tourists gawk at the playthings, but the symbolism is unmistakable: Family values.
"Certainly, there's a bit of [public relations] spinning going on, but on the other hand, it seems to really embody what their beliefs are," said political scientist Robert Holsworth of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Even as Allen assumes a larger public role and crafts a wholesome image, she keeps her distance. "You're always on guard," she said, "because you learn quickly, very early on, that it's very easy to get burned."
Allen is uncomfortable talking about her background, offering details like little album snapshots:
A middle child born in Florida. A girl of modest dreams who ran for a modest post in her fifth-grade student government. A cheerleader and horseback rider. A graduate of the University of South Carolina.
"My life is much more interesting now," she says.
One subject seems to evoke a passion for the past - her father, who served two tours as a Marine in Vietnam.
"I remember, every night my mom crying at the dinner table, watching the TV to see if my father's helicopter had been shot down."
Allen has shared this glimpse with the media. But she is private about her emotions. She keeps a diary to which even her husband is not privy.
Allen makes no secret, however, about two of her frustrations: inaccurate press reports about her husband, and Democrats who have tried to pull a legislative sleight-of-hand on her GOP family man.
"I have wrinkles and gray hair from being in politics," she says.
She doesn't like her voice, either. But for a woman who once modeled wedding gowns, it may be only natural to note imperfections - and to strive to do things right under the public glare.
To date, Allen has managed with few missteps. In Africa, however, she caused some ripples. She did not attend a luncheon in Botswana, a small nation bordering South Africa, where other delegation members toasted the opening of Virginia's first trade office on the continent.
"Where is the first lady?" a high-ranking Botswana official whispered.
Allen was sightseeing and meeting local dignitaries hours away in Gold Reef City, a tourist haven on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Her presence also was missed in Soweto, one of the most infamous living symbols of South Africa's fallen policy of apartheid.
"It bothered me, because I wanted everyone to know" about Soweto, said Linda Byrd Hardin, a delegation member and head of the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Allen said she knew. "I've been there [six years ago]; I've seen the horrible conditions," she said. "But I also came here on a mission to promote tourism."
The trip was largely a ceremonial affair, full of brief meetings and tours. But Allen also helped establish a link between tour operators in South Africa and Virginia, which ultimately could mean revenue and jobs back home, a central theme of her husband's term in office.
"I had full confidence Susan could do the job just fine," said the proud governor.
And yet she is quick to point out that she is not doing her husband's job.
"I'm probably much more of a sounding board for George," she said. "I think that a lot of times you need somebody you can unload on. It's not so much that he's waiting for me to give him an answer as he is maybe waiting for approval or agreement."
Disagreements between the two are another matter. "I'm not going to let you in on inside secrets," she said.
For all of her public exposure, Allen is protective of her family's privacy. She has tried to create a semblance of normalcy out of life in a fishbowl.
For instance, Trudy J. Harris is not just a state trooper guarding the first family. She is "Trudy Honey" and a playmate for Allen's children.
"There's one quote by Jackie O," Allen said of former President Kennedy's wife. "She said something about how her family was the most important thing and how she was going to try to make sure her children had a normal lifestyle. I know exactly how she feels."
Keywords:
PROFILE
Memo: strip