Esther Glewwe Stassen, wife of Harold Stassen, dies at 94

BLOOMINGTON (AP) -- Funeral services were set for Wednesday for Esther Glewwe Stassen, who entertained U.S. presidents, diplomats and heads of state as wife of former Minnesota governor and U.S. presidential candidate Harold Stassen.

Esther Stassen died Saturday at her home in this Minneapolis suburb. She was 94.

During the writing of the United Nations charter in 1945 in San Francisco, where Harold Stassen was a delegate, Esther Stassen was instrumental in keeping negotiations from breaking down, her husband said Sunday.

As hostess to the other delegates' wives, she learned that the Soviet diplomats couldn't freely negotiate because of an order from dictator Josef Stalin.

Stassen told her husband, who got word to President Harry Truman. The president flew a diplomat to Moscow to meet with Stalin, who gave new orders to his delegates. The deadlock was broken and the negotiations continued.

"It was all because of her and what she was able to find out," said Harold Stassen, who served as Minnesota's governor from 1939 to 1943.

As his wife, Esther Stassen often hosted dinner parties for as many as 60 people. While her husband was president of the University of Pennsylvania, she entertained the presidents of Yale, Harvard and Princeton. While he was a politician, she dined with President Dwight Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, said her granddaughter, Rachel Stassen-Berger of Minneapolis.

The Stassens were married for 70 years. Esther Stassen is survived by her husband, a daughter, a son, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Riverview Baptist Church in West St. Paul.