Up & Around

A squeaky version of The Ballad of Davy Crockett, with an obbligato of booming laughter, rang out from the room at Denver's Fitzsimons Hospital last week and echoed down the corridor outside. In side the room a mirthful President of the United States was listening to a special recording made by his grandchildren at their home in Fort Belvoir, Va. and flown to Denver in the care of their father, Major John Eisenhower.

After a musical introduction, the piping voice of Anne Eisenhower, 6, was heard singing Mary Had a Little Lamb. She got through four stanzas, faltered on a few words, but quickly recovered. Then grandson David shouted "Hello, Ike!" and the bashful, singsong voice of baby Susan, 3, came on: "This is Susan. We're sorry you're sick. Hope you get well soon and come back to Gettysburg. Bye, bye."

With some prompting from father John, David reappeared: "I hope you get well, Ike. This is David. Ike, do you know something? Tomorrow I'm going with the den meeting, going on a barge down the Potomac. And also after that, we're going fishing for a while. And after that, we're going to a football game. Goodbye, Ike."

After more greetings from daughter-in-law Barbara Eisenhower, the three grandchildren joined voices in the Davy Crockett ballad, with David soloing the second stanza in a loud voice after his sisters had run out of words. Finally each child took the mike in turn, to greet their grandmother :

Anne: Hello, Mamie, I hope you're feeling fine. I hope you'll hurry up and go to Gettysburg so we can come up and maybe we can come out for Thanksgiving. This is Anne. Here comes David.

David: I'm David, Mamie. I would like it when you get out to Gettysburg. Then we can do many things like riding Tony, golf practice. I miss you very much. I'll see you. Here comes Susie.

Susan: Hello, Mamie. I hope you can go to Gettysburg to see us. Maybe we could go there and see you on Halloween and play trick or treat. Goodbye.

Stars & Calories. Their grandfather's laughter was another sign of President Eisenhower's continuing recovery from the heart attack that bedded him six weeks ago. One morning last week the President kept an appointment with ten photographers, a lone reporter and Press Secretary James Hagerty,* on the sun deck outside his hospital room. It was the first direct, close-up look the press and the public had had of him since his illness, and even in a wheelchair he looked sturdy. He was dressed in the gaudy, dark-red pajamas that the White House press had given him for his birthday (TIME, Oct. 24), and his accessories were suitably loud, too: a black, sequin-sprinkled western-type necktie and a pair of snappy Argyle slipper socks. A circlet of five gold stars adorned each collar tab and in the center of the left circlet was a sixth star--presented by Dr. Paul Dudley White for Ike's "good conduct" as a patient.

As he was wheeled up to the waiting group, Ike squinted in the brilliant October sun and grinned. "It's a long time since I've seen you fellows," he said. "You have been working hard, I suppose." Then, at the President's request, the medical staff on duty gathered around his chair. Ike wanted to be sure that everyone who was caring for him got in the pictures. "Be sure to get Sergeant Vaughn up here," said the President. With a snappy "Yes, sir!" a brawny Negro Medical Corpsman stepped up to his side. After the eight-minute appointment ended, Hagerty and the photographers withdrew quietly, and Ike put on his sunglasses and stretched out in the healing sun.

Through the week the President continued to make steady progress. For the first time since his heart attack he shaved himself. For the first time he sat up in bed without assistance. One day he stood up and took several wobbly steps--a short trip from his bed to an easy chair. Later there were more and longer trips, and by week's end Ike was strolling around his room almost normally. His appetite continued to be hearty, and because of his increased activity the doctors raised his daily caloric intake from 1,600 to 1,800 calories.

Westerns & Work. One afternoon Ike attended a western film in the small auditorium on his floor of the hospital. One morning he was wheeled to the third floor of the hospital, where he had a fluoroscopic examination and the first standing X rays since his illness. The doctors had waited anxiously until Ike was able to stand up for the crucial examinations, were relieved to discover that his heart shadow showed no enlargement or other abnormalities.

Along with his medical progress, the President's working program was stepped up. Bedside appointments with government officials were more frequent and longer. Among the week's visitors: U.N. Representative Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson (see above), Interior Secretary Douglas McKay. One afternoon Dr. Arthur Burns, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Gabriel Hauge, the President's personal economic adviser, met with Ike and got his approval of a domestic Point 4 program (see above). One morning the President worked for 45 minutes on a draft of his 1956 State of the Union message, with Presidential Assistants Sherman Adams and "Jerry" Persons and Speechwriter Kevin McCann. Each day he read Secretary Dulles' reports from Geneva. The number of documents signed by the President increased from a trickle of papers of top importance to an almost-normal flow.

Barring unexpected complications, next week will probably be the President's last in the hospital. After a few more days of accustoming himself to walking, trying out the stairs, and increasing his official activities. Ike will be ready, by the end of next week, to walk out of the hospital and board the plane to Washington.

* For more news of Hagerty and the White House correspondents, see PRESS.

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