Newsmakers : Seasoned Politician May Be Retiring but He’s Not Shy

--County Clerk Lavern McDavitt, who at 97 claims to be the country’s oldest active politician, said in Knoxville, Ill., that he’s voted in presidential elections for 75 years and still can’t tell one party from the other. “I’ve been under a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats and I never knew the difference,” McDavitt, a lifelong Republican, said as President Reagan’s inauguration draws near. McDavitt, who retires this spring after 32 years as county clerk, said he wasn’t sure who would be a good choice for President next time around. “I don’t know for sure. We are getting a little short on material now,” he admitted. Alert and in good health, McDavitt has few vices. He doesn’t smoke or drink. “I was an athlete in college but never exercised after that, and I don’t pay any attention to vitamins. They also say I am the oldest person with a driver’s license in the state. A lot of those old folks with licenses are in rocking chairs, but not me.”

--Comedian and health-food entrepreneur Dick Gregory, who has fasted many times for various causes, is shipping two tons of his nutritional formula to Ethiopia in hopes it will help the starving people there. Gregory, 53, left Boston for Ethiopia carrying two sample cases of the formula, made up of 75 ingredients, including yeast and kelp, which he says has helped him recover quickly from his own frequent hunger strikes. His most recent hunger strike, over Christmas, was to draw attention to Ethiopia’s plight.

--Former President Gerald R. Ford, actress Ginger Rogers and former New York Gov. Hugh F. Carey were among those gathered to congratulate Bob Hope at ground-breaking ceremonies for a cultural center in Palm Desert, Calif., bearing the comedian’s name. “Imagine naming a cultural center after me,” said Hope at the ceremony. “That’s like naming a diet center after Jackie Gleason.” The Bob Hope Cultural Center will be the first performing arts complex in the Coachella Valley, an area 110 miles east of Los Angeles that includes Palm Springs, a rest spot for the rich and famous. “Of all the awards you’ve received, none could be more fitting than this,” President Reagan said in a taped message to the 81-year-old Hope. A group called Friends of the Cultural Center has raised $6 million of its $9-million goal for building the first phase of the Hope complex, a 1,220-seat theater expected to open for the 1986-87 season.