MEETING CONNIE SCHULTZ

Our Senator Sherrod Brown is married to Connie Schultz, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

When Sherrod was running for the U.S. Senate, we went to several of his rallies. I had admired the Senator's wife and each time I would take her book "Life Happens and other unavoidable truths" with me, hoping to have it autographed.

At a rally in Dayton, Connie was with him. I held my book over my head and one of the aides came into the crowd and escorted me to the stage. Connie autographed the book and she said, "Stay here and I'll introduce you to Sherrod." I told her that I had actually come to meet her. When she introduced me to Sherrod, she told him that and he said, "I get that a lot!"

After the campaign, she brought out another book titled "...and His Lovely Wife". Its subtitle is "A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man On love, marriage, and life on the campaign trail" The title stemmed from the fact that they were constantly introduced as "Sherrod Brown and his lovely wife". Connie was scheduled to be the guest speaker at the John Glenn School Of Public Affairs Annual Barbara K. Fergus Women In Leadership Lecture at the Ohio State University. I took BOTH books with me! On the new book Connie inscribed, "From Lucille Clefton: What they call you is one thing; what you answer is something else." She had quoted that line in her speech and I asked her to write it in the book.

When I put the other book in front of her she saw the old inscription and she wrote: "YOU AGAIN!"