Denis Thatchers of World Offer Each Other Support

--Charles E. Horner is associate director of the U.S. Information Agency. But he knew his wife was more influential when a letter arrived for “Mr. and Mrs. Constance Horner.” Her “better half” founded the Denis Thatcher Society, named after the retiring husband of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It’s a tongue-in-cheek support group for “men whose wives are deservedly more prominent and influential than they are,” he said. Constance J. Horner, for instance, oversees 2.2 million federal employees as director of the Office of Personnel Management and is nominated to be undersecretary of health and human services. Lawyer R. James Woolsey, who was Navy undersecretary in the Jimmy Carter Administration, described the qualification for membership: “ . . . your spouse had to be appointed to a job you wish you had.” He was known as the husband of Sue Woolsey, who was an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. Boston stockbroker John Heckler, former husband of Rep. Margaret M. Heckler, who later became a Cabinet member and then ambassador to Ireland, recalls being invited to become president of the Congressional Wives Club. He declined. But most members accept their subordinate status. “As second-income earners, we try to be busy and productive, lest people think we have jobs only as political spouses,” Horner said.

--A woman looking for a butler found the English variety a bit too stuffy. So she founded the Cambridge School for the American Butler--in Ohio. Julia Rice said the English butler “was overbearing and hard to get along with. There’s a big difference between cultures, between tone and approach.” Rice said she developed the school program for a part-time market. For guidance, she relied on writings by etiquette experts Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt, and on a 1939 job description from the U.S. Department of Labor. The first class of eight butlers finished a three-day course in January and now works for Ms. Rice’s Butler Exchange, which charges $25 an hour for a tuxedoed manservant.