Kennedy urged her to read a novel about a soldier who tragically died young; Martha Mitchell called her at night to rant about Watergate until she was pulled away from the phone; as one of the first reporters to interview Reagan after the assassination try, she boldly asked if he would now support gun control (he said no); and when Nixon went to China, members of the advance party became ill because hotel toilet seats were newly laquered with a sumac compound that caused a poison ivy reaction.