George, It’s Just Down the Road a Piece From Lorman

The president of Alcorn State University finally got the kind of R.S.V.P. that he wanted. Walter Washington has asked every U.S. President since Lyndon B. Johnson to speak at commencement at the primarily black college in Mississippi. President Bush is the first to accept. He will speak on Saturday. Alcorn State, which with 2,757 students is one of the smallest of Mississippi’s eight public universities, is located in the rural hills of southwestern Mississippi, seven miles west of Lorman--an unincorporated hamlet consisting of a post office, two service stations, a general store and a few houses. “Roots” author Alex Haley attended Alcorn. Bush also will travel Saturday to Mississippi State University in Starkville to give another graduation speech. The predominantly white school has about 12,000 students.

--One of the reigning stars of rock ‘n’ roll met with a reigning monarch. British singer Sting led a delegation in a session with Spain’s King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia as part of his campaign to create a nature reserve in the Amazon River basin. The group, which includes Brazilian Indian chief Raoni and Sioux tribal leader Red Crow, is midway through a 14-nation tour. Sting told a Spanish television network that a nature reserve would be a first step to curb the destruction of the rain forest.

--Clara Hale, an 84-year-old New York City woman who cares for children born to drug addicts and AIDS patients, traveled halfway across the country to receive the 16th annual Truman Award for Public Service, named for former President Harry S. Truman. Independence, Mo., Mayor Barbara Potts, who presented the award on the steps of the Truman Library, noted that Hale “did not wait for a government program” to give babies a second chance. “God put us here with brains to think and do, and we’re here to help one another,” Hale said. Hale House was born in 1969 when Hale discovered a child in the arms of an addict on a New York street corner. Since then, she and her daughter, Lorraine E. Hale, have helped raise more than 600 infants in the nonprofit residential program, operating in a Harlem brownstone. Hale’s efforts became widely known after then-President Ronald Reagan praised her as an example of volunteerism.