Evening star., 1932-04-03
BY PAULINE A. FREDERICK.

There is something of adventure in
The spirit of Mrs. Ray Lyman Wilbur.
She laughs at this business of living
and calls 1t "a game that you play to
win But behind those words so
easily spoken the hard taskmaster ex-
perience has been busily teaching her
how best ito win" despite heavy odds,
for an indomitable courage has be-
come an essential part of her being.
Living today through a miracle OF
surgery that mended the slender cord
of life in broken neck. this cultivated
hostess of the cabinet greets the duties
of her position with enthusiasm. In
them, as in the tasks she has faced on
the campus of Stanford University, she
senses a challenge to meet and wrestle
with perplexing situations. Her weapon
of combat is an alert and versatile
intellect and victories that come are
especially prized because they have
been duly earned
These things can be observed by one
who sits down with Mrs. Wilbur in the
quiet Of her hotel suite. and listens
as she talks of the currents of life
with which she has been in contact;
for the philosopher in her brings out
refreshing observations on people and
events.
There she is-seated opposite the
fireplace on a brown divan, with her
snowy hair is held close to a kindly
face-a face from which, as one might
say with Byron, there breathes the
music of the mind. AS she talks she
smiles, and a spirited flash often lifts
up the blue of her eyes.
There are many flowers and plants
in the room-reminders of the SUMMER
cline from which she came. There
is mistlike heather from the hedge
that runs by the home of the president
of Stanford University and mingled
pepper trees. There is eucalyptus and
bouquets of lilies OF the valley and
pink carnations. In one corner stands
a small evergreen tree in copper
vessel
"The tree is a Colorado spruce of
ornamental variety" Mrs. Wilbur ex-
plains. 'It came from an altitude Of
10000 feet, where it was covered with
nearly five feet of snow, and is the
gift Of the man upon whom DR.. Wilbur
performed an emergency operation for
appendicitis up in the mountains OF
Colorado last Fall"
Thus appeared Mrs. Wilbur and her
environs short time ago. when, In
q lull from her busy life, she paused
to talk about some of the things in
which she is interested.
To begin with, she told of sturdy
New England parents-the father a
graduate from Yale-vho left the
Northeastern Atlantic Coast country
soon after marriage to make their way
across the Continent to the City OF
the Golden Gate. It was in San Fran
cisco that their daughter, Marguerite,
the present Mrs. Wilbur, was born.
Thus, the daughter grew to young
womanhood IN New England home
transplanted to the Pacific Coast.
When it came time for her to select
an institution of higher learning in
which to further her education, Stan
ford University was agreed upon. She
entered the institution and began to
do major work in physiology.
There was a tall, dark-haired youth
majoring IN the same subject in the
same university, with a view to study
ing medicine later. In their senior
wears the two students were associated
With one another in their common
studies, and so was begun the college
romance Of the Ray Lyman Wilburs
which eliminated little more than a
year later in their marriage.
It was also during Stanford days"
that they met and became the close
friends Of a young couple then known
as Miss Lou Henry and Herbert Clark
Hoover, students of geology.
There is one interest other than
studying and home building to which
Mrs. Wilbur confesses directing con-
siderable energy in her youthful days.
"I was extravagantly fond of riding"
she said. But other than that my
family was my interest"
X X X
Somehow, family to Mrs. Wilbur
means more than a group of little ones
who need to be scrubbed to a shining
morning face" degree, fed three nour-
ishing meals day, toddle off to school
with oyershoes and admonitions to
watch out for the street crossings"
and then bundled into bed at night with