Lost and Found: 1 Town Mayor

--Folks in Chatham, La., wondered why Mayor James H. Waggoner had missed Town Council meetings for the last three months, and then they discovered he had moved. Mayor Pro Tem Robert Riddle said he found Waggoner in Ocean City, Md., where the missing mayor had been offered a job in real estate. Waggoner had worked there before he moved to Louisiana. “He hasn’t moved his furniture yet and he hasn’t disconnected his phone,” Riddle said. Waggoner’s mother said she expects to see him back in north Louisiana soon to make arrangements. But the errant mayor has left trouble in Chatham (pop. 714). The town can’t afford the $2,500 price of a special election. So finding a replacement for Waggoner will have to wait until a scheduled state election in April, Riddle said. Waggoner, reached by phone in Ocean City, said the career move “wasn’t an easy decision. I have a lot of family down there.” But he’s puzzled why his leaving came as a surprise to the town. Doesn’t anyone open their mail? “I had written about a month ago that I would be resigning for personal reasons,” he said.

--Singer Peggy Lee, spending the Thanksgiving holiday in a hospital room, is expected to be home for Christmas and should be able to return to the stage, a hospital spokesman said in New Orleans. The Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter underwent double bypass surgery Oct. 7 after complaining of chest pains during a concert appearance. “If her progress continues, she should be able to go home in approximately 10 days,” said Dr. Tom Oelsner.

--Entertainer Willie Nelson said four $1-million endowments to assist farmers will be set up with part of the $10 million raised by the FarmAid concert he organized last Sept. 22. The interest from one endowment is slated to finance Future Farmers of America scholarships, Nelson said in Austin, Tex., while another will fund projects to educate people about problems of farmers. A third endowment will help buy food for financially strapped farm families, and a fourth will bring in money for a legal “hot line” telephone number to assist farmers in need, he said. “Right now we’re having the legal people check out the best way to set this up, but in the next few days to a month we’re going to go ahead and start doing it,” the country and western entertainer said. Nelson organized the September concert at the University of Illinois at Champaign to draw attention to the plight of American farmers and the declining farm industry. Plans are being formulated for the remainder of the funds, according to spokesmen for Nelson.