Senator’s Running Mate Says They Live Off Work, Not Fortune

There is one thing that really bothers Marilyn Quayle, the wife of the man who was Vice President George Bush’s surprise choice for a running mate.

It isn’t the flap over his military record, which she called “media overkill.”

What bothers her is that everybody seems to think the Quayles are rich.

Yes, Dan Quayle is the grandson of publisher Eugene C. Pulliam, owner of newspapers in Indiana and Arizona. Pulliam’s fortune, which is held in trust, is estimated to exceed $1 billion.

But, Marilyn Quayle said Saturday in an interview at the Irvine Hilton, “Dan’s grandfather did not believe in inherited wealth. So we have never received anything from Dan’s grandfather. We didn’t even get a wedding gift.

“So all this talk about all this money is so ridiculous. What we have is what we have earned through a lot of hard work.” In fact, she said, she is “a little envious we didn’t have” the wealth everyone assumes.

Since her husband was chosen for the GOP vice presidential nomination, Marilyn Quayle has had little time to herself. But now someone has been found to care for the couple’s three children at their home in McLean, Va., and she is beginning to come out on her own as a campaigner for her husband.

On Friday, she appeared on television being interviewed by Barbara Walters. She now has begun to grant individual interviews to reporters, and on Saturday her husband called her up on the dais during a press conference.

“I’m going to let Marilyn speak for herself,” Quayle said. “She is very capable, as you’ll find out, of speaking for herself.

“Marilyn is my best adviser, my strongest supporter and the person I love more than anybody in this world. We may disagree from time to time, but I’ll never share those disagreements publicly. She’s a very strong, independent-minded woman, and we have a very close relationship.”

With that, Marilyn Quayle, 39, told reporters that, yes, she thought the media’s attention at the GOP convention to her husband’s military record was “a feeding frenzy.” Quayle has been widely criticized for being a strong supporter of the Vietnam War while attempting to use family influence to get into the National Guard in the face of the draft.

Later, Quayle again criticized the media, this time saying her children--Tucker, 14, Benjamin, 11, and Corrine, 9--were “overwhelmed” when they were flown to New Orleans after their father was nominated.

“They stepped off the airplane and there were over 50 members of the media there to take their picture,” Quayle said. On other occasions, she said, “the kids would get trampled. They would get hit in the head with cameras. They had no idea what was coming off.”