Nation IN BRIEF : OREGON : Lawmaker’s Nuptials Secret, Paper Reports

Rep. Wes Cooley (R-Ore.) and his wife, Rosemary, kept their wedding secret so she could continue collecting veteran’s benefits as the widow of a U.S. Marine Corps captain, a newspaper in Bend, Ore., reported. The Bulletin quoted sources as saying they had been told the Cooleys were married in Cancun, Mexico. Rosemary Cooley collected benefits as the widow of Capt. Perry Herron, who died in 1965, apparently as late as 1994, according to the Oregonian of Portland. A Cooley friend told the Oregonian that the couple told him they were married in 1983 in Mexico. Federal law prohibits a military widow from drawing benefits after she remarries.