A Woman Of Conviction

In an unusual move, Lay called out to his wife from the witness stand several times, joking that her $200,000 birthday celebration on a yacht named Amnesia dwarfed his planned $12,000 birthday party at a five-star Mexican resort. He asked her rhetorical questions as she grinned and nodded in response. And when he finally exited the courthouse after his chilling fall from grace, Lay took the time to praise his "warm, loving and Christian wife" in front of the television cameras competing for a view of his face. She gazed back at the cameras with swollen eyes.

Even more bold, Lay bucked tradition -- and the advice of his lawyer -- and heard the verdict against him not from a seat at the defense table but instead standing beside his sobbing wife, who wiped her blue eyes with a tissue as the judge let loose with "guilty" after "guilty."

A secretary to Lay for a time when they both worked for Florida Gas Co., the former Linda Phillips eventually moved to Houston and came to work as an assistant for another Enron executive. After raising three children on her own after a divorce, she married Lay in 1982 and started investing in real estate, including multimillion dollar properties in Aspen and Galveston, Tex., that the family has since sold. She also managed the family's charitable foundation, deciding on her own, her husband testified, to sell 500,000 shares of Enron stock before the company announced its merger with Dynegy Inc. had collapsed in late 2001. Linda Lay has never been charged with wrongdoing stemming from Enron's misfortune.

Linda didn't take the stand during her husband's trial but left no room for doubt about her loyalty, even applauding when a defense lawyer used his closing argument to accuse the prosecutor of lying about her husband. She refused to dispense sound bites or grant interviews about the case but proved to be a keen observer herself, providing a running commentary on everything from journalists' wardrobes ("You look nice today") to snacking habits ("Sugar, sugar," she chided one hungry scribe devouring a doughnut and soda for lunch).

Even in Courtroom 9B, she could not resist playing hostess. Defense witnesses were routinely sent on their way after testifying with pats on the back or hugs from Linda.

Aside from much-photographed walks to and from the courthouse, which spurred one angry onlooker to call the couple Barbie and Ken, Linda is perhaps most remembered in Houston for an ill-received appearance on the "Today" show in January 2002, weeks after Enron filed for bankruptcy and cut thousands of jobs.

She cried as she told an interviewer that the couple had been wiped out financially. "It's gone. There's nothing left," she said. Later, her husband would testify that they were $250,000 in the hole.

For Linda, though, the reviews were swift -- and devastating.

Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly wrote in a commentary that Linda wore "what looked to be a $13,000 watch" as she cried poor. "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno lampooned the couple. "She went on to say they've lost all their money," Leno said. "Luckily, they've still got plenty of everybody else's money."

The ridicule reportedly seeped into their private circle, as well, and the social patron once lauded for donating $25 million to charity became a near-pariah, the plunderer's wife.

The Rev. Bill Lawson, a prominent figure in Houston's civil rights community, says some friends have distanced themselves from Lay, a former Houston power broker who in better times seamlessly crisscrossed the social, business and political arenas.

"Ken Lay did have very strong family support. There were other people who did support him, but from a distance," Lawson says. "I guess it was not politically correct."