In 1975, the late publisher of this paper, Robert W. Mitchell, wrote how Lola Pierotti Aiken was said to have introduced U.S. Sen. George Aiken, R-Vt., to his longtime breakfast companion, Senate Democratic leader Mike Mansfield:

According to some reports, the friendship between the two senators was actually initiated by Mrs. Aiken who has a warm outgoing personality and invited Mansfield to sit with Sen. Aiken when he first entered the Senate dining room and was looking for a place to sit.

Aside from being a prodigious worker herself, Mrs. Aiken has unquestionably greatly improved Sen. Aiken’s social life in ways other than making a friendly gesture to Sen. Mansfield. (Aiken says with mock seriousness that all his best friends are committee chairmen.)

Before he married Lola Pierotti, his administrative aide, Aiken lived at the Carroll Arms, an undistinguished hostelry conveniently located near the Capitol. He eschewed Washington social life and the cocktail-party circuit.

But under his wife’s tutelage, he has unbent more, to the point of joining in dancing at the White House and drinking an occasional cocktail. Her volatile Italian temperament and his unflappable Yankee makeup complement each other.