DUKE: A LOVE STORY An Intimate Memoir of John Wayne's Last Years

by Pat with Beverly Linet Stacy ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 1983

Stacy was John Wayne's secretary and live-in love-interest during the last seven years of his life--and in this plain, relatively restrained memoir she recalls ""the man I loved, not the legend,"" a man who was ill through much of their time together. Beginning, inevitably, with Wayne's Academy Award-show appearance a few months before his death, Stacy then goes back to recount--in sometimes numbing detail--their love affair, his final films, and his many illnesses. She was a 30-ish divorcÉ when she went to work for him; he was 65-ish, on the verge of separating from wife Pilar. They became lovers in 1973, while on location in Seattle for McQ. And soon thereafter, in London for Brannigan, their affair moved from a secretive thing to a full-blown relationship: ""We had love to give, and we gave it and gave it, freely and without guilt. As a lover Duke was affectionate, considerate, and gentle."" (Minor embarrassments--Pat's role at public functions--did continue, however, and Duke wasn't interested in yet another marriage: ""I wanted to be Duke's wife, but only if that was what he wanted. If not, I was satisfied to remain with him as a loving companion. . . ."") But, despite their mutual happiness and good times making Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist (fond words for Katharine Hepburn), Duke's health became the major preoccupation: heart surgery, then cancer--with the illness ""making him increasingly less loving, and less lovable. The world was slipping from his grasp, and he couldn't stand it, so he would lash out in rages. . . ."" And shortly after the Awards appearance, back in the hospital, the Duke's agony was such that he ordered Pat to bring him his Smith & Wesson 38, saying ""I want to blow my brains out."" (She refused--as did son Patrick.) Not all Wayne fans will welcome the sad, day-by-day deathwatch here, with grim medical/funeral minutiae. And some may not appreciate Stacy's refusal to turn Wayne's final days into a heroic finale. But the portrait of Wayne is modestly endearing and happily life-sized (his bad driving, his relationship with his kids, his friendships, his underestimated sense of humor); and Stacy herself--obviously determined to offend no one--is a likable enough presence (especially with Duke's children) to make this a better-than-average example of the My-Life-With genre.

Pub Date: June 13, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION