Cornelia Wallace Has Mental Tests

MOBILE, Ala. — Cornelia Wallace, former wife of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, has been a patient at a state mental hospital for the last two weeks under a judge’s order granting her family’s request that she be committed, reports said Friday.

The Mobile Press-Register reported that Wallace, who was divorced from Gov. Wallace in 1978, was taken to Searcy Hospital in Mount Vernon following a Dec. 14 commitment hearing before Coffee County Probate Judge Marion Brunson.

The petitioners before the judge were Wallace’s mother, Ruby Folsom Austin, and brother, Charles Ellis Jr., both of Elba, the newspaper said.

Searcy officials said would not confirm that Cornelia Wallace is a patient, but Brunson said she is responding well to treatment and not expected to be hospitalized much longer.

“It was my observation that it was needed,” Brunson said. “I understand she has responded very well.”

Brunson told the newspaper that Wallace, 44, had been living in Florida and had been visiting in Elba when her mother and brother asked for the commitment. Brunson said she was nervous but very cooperative at the hearing.