For First Family, Prayer Without Fanfare on Easter

--President and Mrs. Reagan surprised parishioners at the Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church near Solvang when they showed up for Easter services. The congregation applauded as the Reagans took the seats in the front row. Several people shouted: “I love you, Mr. President!” and a young girl gave Nancy Reagan a corsage. Pastor Jeffrey L. Cotter was notified about half an hour before the 11 a.m. service that the Reagans would be attending. Although it was the fifth anniversary of the attempt on Reagan’s life by John W. Hinckley Jr., there were few security measures visible Sunday and parishioners were not required to pass through metal detectors to enter the church. A White House aide told reporters that Mrs. Reagan had agreed to attend the service only if there was a minimum of disruption. The aide said that “agent pairs,” male and female Secret Service agents in plain clothes, were in the congregation.

--There are two Kings and two Quinns, a Tom and a Dick, but no Harry running for mayor of Tulsa, Okla., where 18 independent candidates are vying with two party nominees for office. And while Tulsans are voting for mayor today, they will also select a new City Commission, with 47 candidates--including six high school seniors--campaigning for six commission seats, three dozen of them running under no party banner in a city where no independent has won office. Election board officials had to use both the front and back of the 220,000 ballots to get all the names on it. The flood of independent candidates filed after Mayor Terry Young was upset in the Democratic primary on March 4. “I don’t think this is going to be a political-issue campaign,” said Mike Bilbow, 17, campaign manager for 18-year-old mayoral candidate Colin Tucker. “I think it will be a name-recognition contest.”

--Baby sitters they’re not, but Marine Corps drill instructors working with these recruits may get that idea--the trainees are 9 years old. In Delran Township, New Jersey’s second chapter of the Young Marines is in the midst of a four-month-long boot camp. Every Monday night, 32 recruits drill and study, and once a month they go to field encampments at places such as nearby Ft. Dix. Although high school students make up more than half of the Young Marines, there are recruits ages 9 to 12, known as mini-Marines. Madeline Moyer of Burlington Township, whose 12-year-old son, Shane, is a Young Marine, said: “I was in the Air Force myself. It’s good discipline, something that a boy needs. The more discipline he gets now, the better.”