Unruh Links Low Profile to Honeymoon, Not Cancer

State Treasurer Jesse Unruh has confirmed that he has been under treatment for prostate cancer, but he said the reason he has been out of public view recently is not the illness, but that he has just remarried.

“I’m on my honeymoon now,” Unruh said in a telephone interview with the Sacramento Bee, offering no further details.

Friends said Unruh surprised them at a pre-election party last week by introducing Chris Edwards of Los Angeles, a close friend for many years, as his new wife.

Won Fourth Term

Unruh, 64, who was elected last week to his fourth four-year term as treasurer, has been divorced for more than a decade from his first wife, Virginia, with whom he has five adult children.

“I have cancer just like the President has cancer, and I’m being treated just like I presume he is being treated. . . . I have been under a doctor’s treatment, it’s true, but I am a long way from being dead or dying,” Unruh told the Bee, responding to questions about rumors that he is dying of cancer.

(In fact, President Reagan’s cancer was quite different from the prostate cancer Unruh described. Reagan underwent surgery in July, 1985, for removal of part of his lower intestine that adjoined a malignant tumor in his colon. Doctors said after the operation that they believed all cancerous tissue had been removed. He has since had two minor skin cancers removed from his nose.)

“I’ve had cancer for three years. We watch it very closely,” Unruh added. “It’s very tough for me to talk about it, because I’m definitely not dying, as you can hear from my voice.”

Unruh added that in recent weeks he has been troubled by a back problem that caused him to miss about three weeks of work, but that his back “is in pretty good shape now.” He said he has been fitted with a back brace.

His unusually low public visibility in the weeks preceding the election--in which he had no major party opposition--and his failure to appear at any of the Democratic Party election night parties last week fueled new speculation about Unruh’s health, although several individuals who have seen him recently said he looked fine.

Unruh has been a fixture in Sacramento and in state Democratic politics for most of more than three decades. For much of that period, he has borne the nickname “Big Daddy” in recognition of both his girth and his political muscle. He was first elected to the Assembly from Los Angeles in 1954 and served as Assembly Speaker from 1961 to 1968.

In 1970, he was the Democratic candidate for governor, but he lost to Reagan. He returned to public office as state treasurer in 1974.