Bertie & the Board

Three years ago Federal District Judge Ben C. Connally ordered the biggest segregated school district in the U.S., Houston's 173 schools, to integrate "with all deliberate speed." Two months ago Houston's school board blandly submitted a plan to integrate only three schools--and pledged that no child in the district need attend them. Last week Judge Connally cracked down, ordered integration of all kindergartens next fall, and of a grade a year thereafter. He called the board's plan "a palpable sham and subterfuge."

Judge Connally was up against a school board that specializes in finding "controversial" anything which it disapproves of. The board's right-wing majority has denounced the U.N. as unAmerican, banned standard textbooks as "anti-capitalistic," fired teachers on shaky charges of being "leftish." In this crusade, no one has been more energetic than tiny, taut Bertie Maughmer, 44, wife of Police Lieutenant Earl Maughmer Jr. Last week, as an eerie footnote to the proceedings, Board Member Maughmer was under a charge of assault to murder. The man she is accused of trying to kill: Policeman Maughmer.

No Free Lunch. When the Maughmers married 23 years ago, so did two Texas-tall egos, each with a passion for "leadership." After Maughmer became president of the Houston Police Officers Association in 1949, he lobbied luxuriantly in the state capitol. Meanwhile, Mrs. Maughmer was ringleading Houston's McCarthylike Minute Women. In 1956 she got herself on the school board in the most vicious campaign in Houston history. Her segregationist plank: "I'd rather go to jail than see my kids go to school with niggers." As parliamentarian, Bertie often controlled the board. Between sessions of getting books banned, she attacked any form of federal aid to schools. She helped cut off reimbursements for teachers attending meetings of the National Education Association (which endorses federal aid), managed to stop the free-lunch program in Houston (where many children now go without lunch). Bertie hit the newspapers at least once a week, and enjoyed it so much that she carried even uncomplimentary stories around in her handbag.

One Little Favor. At the Maughmer home, things sometimes reached a high pitch. She called the marriage "sheer hell." He denounced her for assuming the "leadership role." But divorce seemed out of the question. After all, bad publicity might spoil the two Maughmer careers.

One evening last month, Bertie Maughmer phoned police to report that her husband had been shot. Her story: he was teaching her how to use his .357 Magnum pistol when suddenly it sent a high-powered slug through his stomach. On the verge of death, Maughmer seemed to back her story. But nine days later he recovered enough to tell a different tale. After a violent argument, he said, she had waylaid him in the bedroom and shot him in a cold fury.

Last week, days after her arrest and her announcement that "naturally" she would resign from the school board, Mrs. Maughmer was still a board member. No one could find any law that compelled her to resign, but Houston parents were signing petitions to ask of her at least that one little favor.

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