Columnist for Kids

Sue Simpson, plump, blue-eyed, precocious, moved to Indianapolis with her parents three years ago and joined the sophomore class of a private school for girls. Daughter of a cleaning-fluid manufacturer, she had got her elementary schooling in Plainfield, N. J.

One day last fall Sue walked into the office of Earl Mushlitz, assistant managing editor of the Indianapolis Star, and told him that she wanted to write a column of social chitchat about young people. "I'll call you Monday," said Earl Mushlitz. On Monday he called and told her: "Bring it in." Thus Sue Simpson, aged 16, became a society columnist.

Last week with one more month to go before she graduates from high school, gives up her column and leaves for college. Sue celebrated her 17th birthday. So popular is "Subdebs and Squires" that it is now a regular feature of the Sunday Star.

Sue scored her first beat last November when Princess Alexandra Kropotkin turned up in Indianapolis. Other newsmen had been warned that the Princess did not care to be interviewed. But Sue, on her father's advice, sent Princess Kropotkin an immense bouquet of orchids, then called at her hotel and asked for an interview.

"I can give you five minutes," saic Princess Kropotkin. Sue went up and stayed an hour. The Princess told Sue that she had been overcome with boredom after a cocktail party when she accepted an invitation to look at a proud Hoosier's "blue ribbon" stable, found it filled with "giant farm horses"--Percherons. The Princess said she had never before realized that Midwestern men could get drunk on so little liquor.

When Editor Mushlitz got Sue's column he called her up, asked her to write a feature story, promised: "I'll put it on page 1 and give you a by-line." Sue said no. Next Sunday, discreet Sue's column said: "This petite, vivacious princess graciously gave me a message . . . because she is particularly interested in young people and their problems. . . . She said: 'Kindness and self-discipline are insurance against loneliness. . . . Wasting energy on parties is silly at any age . . . unless the art of conversation is developed. . . .' "

Sue Simpson makes a particular point of writing about adolescents in a way that parents approve. She does not approve of young people riding about, dancing, and playing unescorted from midnight to sunup. On New Year's Eve she wrote: "In these busy times we are sometimes careless or negligent of our social duties. Therefore, let us resolve: 1) to accept or regret R. S. V. P. invitations promptly . . . ;

2) to write 'bread and butter' letters . . . ;

3) to be on time ... ;

4) to be definite as to the place of rendezvous... ;

5) to be considerate ... ;

6) to greet the host and hostess ... ;

7) to exert our utmost charm to all guests at a party ... ;

8) to remember that parents worry. . . ." Editors never cut her copy.

Last February successful Sue transferred from her private school to a co-educational city high school, to meet more young people. At Shortridge High School, with 3,400 students, Sue has eight assistants who feed her material. She has correspondents in five other large schools, two Catholic schools for girls, a fashionable elementary school, a private school for boys. Next fall she is going to co-ed at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio--where her mother's mother and grandmother were graduated--to study law.

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