Bubba will do anything to be back in the spotlight even as a de facto president.
A lot of info about this period in the Wikipedia article on her. Sad situation.
Lurleen Clinton.
From Wiki:
“In order to facilitate his plan to use her as a surrogate candidate in 1966, Mrs. Wallace cooperated with a campaign of dissimulation and misdirection as she began radiation therapy in December, 1965. This was followed by a hysterectomy in January 1966. Despite her ill health, Mrs. Wallace maintained a brutal campaign schedule throughout 1966 and gave a 24-minute speech — her longest ever — at her January 1967 inauguration.[1]
Early in her term, Mrs. Wallace’s condition began to deteriorate. In June 1967, an abdominal growth was found. During surgery July 10, this proved to be an egg-sized malignancy on her colon. She endured a second course of radiation therapy as a followup. In January 1968, after extensive testing, she informed her staff (but not the public) that she had a cancerous pelvic tumor which was pressing on the nerves of her back down through her right hip.[1] Even with the prior surgeries on her uterus and colon, and despite the radiation treatment, the cancer spread.
Her last public appearance as governor was at the 1967 Blue-Gray Football Classic, followed by a campaign appearance for her husband’s presidential bid on January 11, 1968. Her illness was obvious and worsening. The pelvic tumor was removed in late February. This was followed by surgery to treat an abdominal abscess, and in late March of 1968, more surgery to dissolve a blood clot in her left lung. By April, the cancer was in her liver and lungs, and she weighed less than eighty pounds.[1]
“Her husband, George Wallace, persistently lied to the press about her condition, claiming in April that “she has won the fight” against cancer. He continued to make campaign stops nationwide during her last weeks of life, but her doctors warned him she was in unstable condition on May 5, the day he was to leave for a Michigan sweep. At her request, he cancelled a television appearance May 6, when she was too ill to be moved back to the hospital. Lurleen Wallace died at 12:34 a.m. May 7, 1968, with her husband beside her and the rest of her family, including her parents, just outside her room.[1]”
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If there’s a scandal to all that, it’s that they were both in on it. She was undoubtedly on her last legs at the time and being propped up by morphine.
I wonder how deep they get into that in the Gary Sinise / Angelina Jolie biopic?