Evening star., 1961-08-14

Clby 70 ILl6 dIbdT-6II1l6T III
Washington, Paris or Lagos,
Nigeria.
The reason neither the
exact place nor date has been
fixed is that they became
engaged only two weeks ago
via cable and mail, and what
with the time it takes to get
letters from Washington to
Africa and back, the final
details haven't been ironed
out.
If Bob can get as far away
from his post as the United
States, they will be married
at a quiet wedding here in
late September, followed by
a reception at the Potomac,
MD home Of David and
Dudley Stratton SemmeS.
If he can't get away for any
length of time, they will be
married at Lagos, because
there is an Episcopal Church
there and it is only three
hours down the coast from
Cotonou, the capital of Da-
honey.
It's doubtful if any of the
family could get that far, but
most of them could converge
on Paris if they settle on this
halfway point. 1t would be
particularly easy for Alice's
other sister and brother-in-
law, Stratton and David
McKillop. who would have
only to fly down from Brus-
sells, where he is No. 2 man
at our Embassy.
THE TALL, SLENDER,
GOOD-LOOKING bride-to-
be made her debut in 1941,
is a graduate of Sweet Briar
College. A member of the
Junior League of Washing
ton, and a former Foreign
Service reserve officer. She
served in Frankfurt, Germany
from 1855 to 1857 and in
London from 1857 to 1859.
She plays very good tennis,
skis extremely we'll and loves
to sail.
Bob plays excellent tennis,
is a wonderful sailor and a
firSt-rate horseman.
She speaks some German
and a little French, and he
speaks quite good French and
some Portuguese" Alice is
now taking intensive private
French lessons from Prof :.
Maubray at Georgetown Uni
versity's School of Linguistics.
The daughter of L. D.
Nicholson, she is a third-gen-
Grafton Georgetowner. Her
father manufactures paper
now in Kalamazoo, Mich,
but he used to have the paper
mill on the old canal, now
down under the Georgetown
elevated road. which has been
rented to the Government.
Ambassador McIlvaine, a
Harvard graduate, 1885, is
from Downingtown, Pa,
where his mother, the widow
of an architect, still lives, and
where he was editor of The
Archive, a weekly newspaper.
He was co-author of a book
about the paper called "It
Happened Every Thursday"
which was made into a movie.
HE is NOT ONLY THE
FIRST resident American
Ambassador to the new coun-
try of Dahomey, but he is
the only ambassador in Co.
tonou, so he no sooner ar
rived last month than he was
dean of the corps. There are
no other diplomats living
there of any rank with the
exception of the Americans,
although there is quite a
French colony there.
II am intrigued" spoke
Alice at the prospect of pio-
neering in a newborn nation,
II think it will be wonderful.
1t is so unexplored. So few
people know anything about
it,"
So that she won't be one
of the later, she is now deep
in Herskovitz's two-volume
study called Ancient West
African Kingdom" which
covers everything from agri-
cultural problems to its ira
ditionS and tribal rites.
But she will really be pio-
neering as an ambassadors
wife. AS yet there is a chan
Gerry but no embassy resi-
dence. Her fiance has been
living in. a Frenchman's
apartment leased for the
summer. But a small bunga-
low is being constructed by
the chancery and they think
they will occupy that pend
ing some more satisfactory
arrangement. Not many am
bassadors' wives would relish
this kind of a Setup, but Alice
has stars in her eyes.
In Washington she already
is getting ready to put the
bachelor" Georgetown house
she occupies on the rental
market. The property of
David McKillop, it is furn-
ished with such collections
from his travels as Lowe
stoft and Limoges china and
= built-in German Hi-Fi.
ABOUT 14O WASHING
TONIANS drove up to Ca
toctin Furnace. Md. yester-
day with Floyd Akerses at