"An Undying Love Affair Outlasts State House Scandal of Long Ago." The Washington Post, 21 October 2001.

An Undying Love Affair Outlasts State House Scandal of Long Ago; [FINAL Edition]
Daniel LeDuc. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Oct 21, 2001. pg. T.05

Family, friends and a small vanguard of Maryland's political elite gathered 10 days ago to eulogize Jeanne Blackistone Mandel, whose love affair with a governor once scandalized a state and mesmerized a nation but also grew into a long, loving marriage.

Mandel, who married then-Gov. Marvin Mandel in 1974, died of heart failure Oct. 6 at age 64 following a years-long battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.

At once charismatic, beautiful and glamorous, Jeanne Mandel was recalled during her funeral as ambitious, forceful and public spirited. Over time, her public image was transformed from that of the Other Woman who helped put a very public end to the former governor's first marriage to that of a popular first lady in her own right.

It was she who stood next to Marvin Mandel when he was convicted of federal corruption while in office and who was waiting for him when he returned from prison. It was she who established her own life of public service, serving two terms as a St. Mary's County commissioner and as the county's first female police commissioner.

It was she who helped preserve St. Clement's Island, site of the 1634 landing of the Ark and Dove, whose passengers settled the province. It was she, raised a Catholic and educated in parochial schools, who secretly studied her husband's faith, Judaism, and converted as a surprise to him.

And it was her recent illness that illustrated the former governor's strong devotion to her as he cared for her in their Annapolis home even as she was unable to speak, eat or breathe on her own.

"Jeanne first met Marvin in 1963. He was immediately smitten with this stately and beautiful woman. Their love was so intense, they reached a point they could not be apart. It took a long time for that to be arranged," Rabbi Steven Fink told the 160 people gathered at a Pikesville funeral home. "Their relationship is one of the great love stories of the 20th century."

It began at the Maryland Inn, a venerable Annapolis restaurant where Marvin Mandel, then married and serving in the legislature, met her. He was 47 and married. She was 25 and married.

Before they could marry each other, a decade would pass. They would have a child together, she would divorce her husband, a former state senator from St. Mary's County, and Mandel would end his marriage to Barbara -- after a tumultuous fight during which she refused to leave the governor's mansion in Annapolis for nearly six months.

Jeanne and Marvin Mandel were married Aug. 13, 1974, as he campaigned for reelection, which he won in a landslide.

"It was a great love affair that captured everybody's attention and a very popular love affair," said House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany), who attended the funeral.

He was joined by Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D), Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D), Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's and Calvert), Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D), Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry (D) and Rep. Robert Ehrlich Jr. (R-Md.).

Others in attendance included Court of Appeals judges Irma S. Raker and Alan M. Wilner, Baltimore County Executive C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger and many of the old guard of state politics, including Democratic fundraiser and Baltimore businessman John Paterakis, longtime lobbyist James Doyle and Mandel friend and lobbyist Bruce Bereano, who was a pallbearer.

The love affair may not have hurt Marvin Mandel's reelection effort, but it eventually was the cause of his undoing. Federal prosecutors convicted Mandel on charges stemming from a complicated scheme to help a Baltimore businessman increase the value of a racetrack he owned. In exchange for the governor's help, the man handled some of Mandel's divorce expenses.

Political columnist Mary McGrory wrote of Mandel, "He loved beyond his means."

President Ronald Reagan later commuted Mandel's sentence, and eventually the former governor's conviction was overturned by an appeals court.

In recent years, Mandel has tended to a small law practice and served as an elder statesman advising rising political talent, including both Townsend and Ehrlich. But he spent most of his time at his home, with its views of Mill Creek, reading to his wife when she no longer could, speaking to her when she could no longer respond.

"He told me, 'Jeanne stuck by me when I had my problems, and I'm going to stick by her,' " Schaefer recalled. "He never thought of taking her to a nursing home."

In the final days, Mandel shopped for vegetables to make juice she ingested through a tube and took her on drives to the Eastern Shore and on department store shopping trips.

Mandel's former press secretary, Frank DeFilippo, again spoke for his old boss: "He was devoted to her until the end."