Coming soon, “Urban Cowboy.” Fire up the mechanical bull!

June 9, 1980: The late Bella Stumbo (d. 2002) profiles Joan Kennedy as her husband, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), seeks the Democratic presidential nomination.   Notice that the headline carefully avoids saying anything. a clue that this is a sensitive story. I was a little surprised that the story appeared on an inside page instead of the cover. 

A typical Stumbo passage: “It has been Joan Kennedy's role in this campaign, therefore, to demonstrate, through loving, trusting support of her husband, that he is not a womanizer who drove her to drink in the first place and has now somehow coerced her into campaigning for him at the expense of her own well-being. Many believe that.”

Stumbo’s famous profile of Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry is here>>>