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his life's no open book continued
TWO IMPORTANT WOMEN in Howard's life ore his grandmother, Matilda Osterkomp, and his mother, Grace Keel. Usually reticent. Keel, is happy to show off Grandma. He's silent about the rest of his private life; shares Grandma's sentiment: "We-e-ll, Howard, I'm not sure it's good for anyone to have all that fuss made over him."
It cost $2.50 then and we paid exactly ten times that just to have it restored. We didn't have it rewired, though. We're using it just the way they did. That way it'll fit in with the rustic ranch house we hope to build some day."
Asked when he expects to build, he said he didn't know. Asked if he expected to have stables, too, he said, "No. They're too expensive to keep up." The Keels seem to be going slow about cashing in on his financial success, from what one can infer from his further remarks about his home.
"We're living in a rented house. The carpets and drapes were in it. We didn't want to go out and buy just anything. We want every piece to be right. So we found a man who designs and builds furniture to order. Whenever we're ready to buy another piece, we contact him. He makes up several designs just for us, then we select the one we want. We just got our coffee table. Made of alder wood. That's a httle darker than maple. Six feet long and 35 inches wide. It sort of crowds the living room now, I guess." His eyes lit up as he con
tinued, "Even if it does, I hope before long to get that big chair I've promised myself."
Many believe that Keel's attitude toward his home and the public's interest in him stems from earlier hurts of poverty, and his ineffectual, trouble-making rebeUions against being pushed around. They think he wants to eventually spit in everyone's eye with a dazzling show of success. It's a childish reaction, maybe, but maybe he's got cause. Look at the record of his childhood.
He talks freely about his hfe until he was 11 years old. Then the Keels were a happy family back in Gillespie, Illinois. His father, like most men in that town of 5,000, was a coal miner. His earnings couldn't provide luxuries but that didn't matter. He gave Howard and his older brother the priceless gift of being a pal, of guiding them wisely with a firm and gentle hand.
Howard's mother, Grace Keel, provided wonderfully for her men with that talent some women have of making a great deal out (Continued on page 95)
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