Allen's Wife May Help Soften His Rough Edges

"I thought he was intriguing," Susan Allen recalled. She admired his love of history and geography and his quest to visit all 50 states. "He opens my eyes and my mind."

A friend from those days, Diane Bateman, said Susan Allen embraced the role of a political spouse early on. She always had a patient word for her husband's constituents, even when they would buttonhole her at neighborhood pizza parties, Bateman said.

"I think her feeling is that she's happy to answer any question anybody asks, even the toughest ones," Bateman said. "What she wants to do is at least deliver the message. . . . I've never seen her become unnerved by the personal attacks, and I think that's remarkable."

Allen said her husband's love of history explains the oft-discussed Confederate flag that hung in their home in Earlysville during the first years of their marriage. It was one of many flags from around the world, she said, that formed part of the decor of their log cabin in the 1980s. She also said that was another era.

"I don't believe it was always a symbol of hatred," she said. "The African American community today has made us aware of that."

Asked about the hangman's noose that once hung in her husband's law office, she said it was displayed next to lassos and handmade chaps, reflecting her husband's interest in the Old West. The noose had no racial symbolism, Susan Allen said.

"What do you think they did out west to criminals?" she asked. "Since when is that a racist thing?"

However, the story of the noose and the flag has continued to inflame critics, particularly in light of recent charges from former classmates and associates that George Allen repeatedly used a racial epithet.

Toni-Michelle Travis, a professor of African American studies at George Mason University, said she sees in the senator a "pattern of unbelievable insensitivity to other ethnic and racial groups."

"I don't believe anyone who grew up and who has lived in Virginia doesn't understand that negative, hurtful, painful symbolism of the Confederate flag," Travis said.

The flag was taken down and placed in storage after the couple moved into the governor's mansion in 1994, Susan Allen said.

During their time in Richmond, Susan Allen traveled in the United States and overseas to promote tourism and also worked on health issues. She now serves on the boards of the Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, the regional Red Cross and other organizations. The couple has three children: Tyler, 18, a freshman at James Madison University; Forrest, 15; and Brooke, 8. The younger two attend public schools in Fairfax.

Allen said Forrest, a 10th-grader at West Potomac High School, has been called "macaca" repeatedly by classmates in the weeks since her husband used the term to refer to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent, unleashing a firestorm.

"He's a tough kid," she said. "We're a very close-knit family. We know what the real deal is. We know who George is."