Separate Ways: Billionaire John Kluge, 75, reputed...

Separate Ways: Billionaire John Kluge, 75, reputed to be America’s richest man, and his third wife, Patricia, 41, have divorced because of “irreconcilable differences,” said Peter Sherman, her attorney. Forbes magazine’s survey of 1989’s richest Americans lists Kluge, chairman of the conglomerate Metromedia firm, as No. 1 with a net worth of $5.2 billion. Sherman said the two have “resolved all matters amicably and wish each other well.”

* Downsized: Former President Richard Nixon has for-sale signs up on his seven-bedroom house in Saddle River, N.J. He will move to a three-bedroom townhouse in nearby Park Ridge, spokesman John Taylor said Tuesday, adding the Nixons will “spend their energy on activities other than maintaining a large house on four acres.” Taylor did not know the new home’s purchase price or the old home’s asking price, which the Nixons bought in 1981 for $1.25 million.

* Trimming Back: Lady Bird Johnson, who has led highway beautification efforts since her days as First Lady, is bowing out of a Texas program that awarded highway workers for beautifying picnic areas and landscapes. “After 20 years . . . whatever we can do has been done,” she said in a statement released in Houston. She said she also wants to spend more time with her family.

* Hospital Report: The Rev. Billy Graham was released Monday from St. Marys Hospital in Rochester, Minn., after part of a rib was removed to check for cancer, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester said Tuesday. No cancer was found. Graham, 71, was hospitalized April 10 after X-rays, taken several weeks after he had fallen, showed a suspicious rib lesion.