Ginny: A Love Remembered

The 50-year marriage of editorial cartoonist Artley and his wife Ginny began as a WW II romance between a WAC and a soldier. It ended early this year with the death of Ginny, mother of their four children, of Alzheimer's disease and is honored here in an unabashedly sentimental and at times overly detailed fashion. The ``horrible nightmare'' of Ginny's illness, including her mental deterioration, starkly contrasts with the joy of earlier years spent on the Iowa family farm and in the couple's long partnership as editors of a small-town weekly. In 1987, after five years of devoted home care, Ginny's worsening condition required more intensive attention and she was moved to the Iowa Veterans Home where she stayed until shorty before her death in a hospice. Although oral communcation had long ceased, Artley is convinced that Ginny recognized and welcomed his presence until the end. Photos. (Sept.)