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Muriel Buck Humphrey, a young looking mother of four and a well-seasoned senator's wife, is heart and soul in this presidential campaign. She is genuinely convinced that her husband, Senator Hubert Humphrey will be the next president of the United States, and that he will do the job as it should be done.

In talking with her, some of the excitement of this campaign comes through to you. There is an enthusiasm in her manner...and a complete sincerity that becomes apparent.

She has a sense of humor, too! Twice, as this writer tried to muster some semblance of dignity to convince the senator's wife that the News-Register's women's editor is the soul of sophistication, I slipped and called her 'Mrs. Kennedy.' She not only took it gracefully, - she giggled!

Campaigning must be more than hectic. In a short space of time this morning the Humphrey hotel suite was indicative of Grand Central. Radio taped interviews were being set up...the phone rang constantly...coffee was served...a pretty girl named Miss Brod was dispatching things efficiently...and Wheeling's Gordon Fought arrived with orchids.

But through it all, I managed to learn a little something about Muriel Humphrey as a woman. Like women everywhere she can talk endlessly about her children. Their daughter is a student nurse in Minnesota...and their three boys are in school. (And two of the boys had the time of their lives last week, campaigning with her.) Like all normal children, they have pets...a dog, a cat named "Zorro"...and they own half-interest in a pony...sharing him with close friends!

"Home" of course is Minnesota, but they've had a house the past 12 years in Chevy Chase, Md. Adjusting to the political life of Washington has been taken in stride...and the kids love it all. Their home, a comfortable, contemporary one, is open for informal entertaining...and friends call often. But Mrs. Humphrey has yet to have the proverbial "black tie" dinner party so prevalent in Washington. Two of her closest friends are Emily (Mrs. Paul) Douglas, and Mrs. Richard Neuburger, who is running for senator from Oregon in place of her late husband.

In the hobby department: Muriel Humphrey misses most, during this time of travel and speech-making, her garden. She's an avid gard[e]ner, and like hundreds and hundreds of other women, belongs to a garden club. And sportswise, it's swimming and water-skiing...and this is the summer Muriel will attempt the single-ski bit!

Do thoughts of occupying the White House frighten her? Naturally. It's "butterflies in the tummy" everytime she thinks about it! But, as she put it, "I couldn't visualize myself as a mayor's wife years ago...or again, as a senator's wife. But somehow I made the hurdles...and loved every minute of it!"

And so the Humphrey brigade rolls one - through West Virginia and through the rest of the country - and the senator can count his blessings in having such a charming, dedicated campaigner in his corner as Muriel Humphrey!