
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 22, 1994                   TAG: 9402220124
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE PEOPLE COLUMN

President Clinton, who devours mystery novels the way he does food, is putting together a White House dinner for his favorite writers, according to U.S. News & World Report. Among the likely suspects on the guest list: Walter Mosley, Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen. "This is the great thing about being president," a senior adviser told the magazine. "You invite people to dinner and they have to come."

\ Roanoke Mayor Emeritus Noel Taylor isn't leaving his pulpit at High Street Baptist Church to chase down a dream of Broadway, but he is walking the boards of the Center in the Square stage for a few days.

Taylor will play the role of the Rev. Sykes in Mill Mountain Theatre's production of "To Kill A Mockingbird" from Thursday through Saturday nights, and for two more dates to be announced later.

The role is not exactly a stretch for Taylor, who has been a minister since 1952. And he's already getting good reviews. "My lord, he is a natural born actor," says Anne Hammersley, a long-time friend of Taylor and theater board member, who helped arrange Taylor's role.

\ She's given up smoking and drinking, but Jeanne Calment allowed herself the vice of chocolate cake Monday to celebrate turning 119.

"I want to profit from everything," she said. "That was always the rule I lived by. I still think today that you shouldn't deprive yourself. Young people are right to live fully. If I was 20, I'd take my time!"

Since the Guinness Book of Records identified her three years ago as the oldest living person whose age can be reliably authenticated, Calment has continued to age gracefully at a retirement home in the southern French town of Arles.

She smoked a cigarette a day until two years ago, when gerontologist Dr. Victor Lebre ordered her to stop to preserve her eyesight. Lebre also cut back the glass of port she enjoyed daily to one every now and then - like for her birthday.

by CNB