Prince Arrives in Texas for King-Size Birthday Bash

--Pipers filled the air with the strains of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” as Britain’s Prince Charles arrived in Dallas aboard a Royal Air Force VC-10 jet from Britain for a whirlwind visit to help launch the state’s 150th birthday party. Charles, who arrived late Monday without Princess Diana and was greeted by Texas dignitaries, has a crowded itinerary of tours, dining and speeches, with stops in Houston, Austin and San Antonio before jetting off to Palm Springs, Calif., on Friday. The major purpose of the visit was to present the Winston Churchill Award to 55-year-old businessman H. Ross Perot. Perot, the founder of Electronic Data Systems, is the third person and the first businessman to receive the Churchill Award, which was begun in 1981 and is given those who best epitomize the British statesman’s spirit. The Prince of Wales praised Perot as a man of “bold imagination, pioneering spirit and dynamic leadership.” The big 150th anniversary bash begins Thursday in Austin, where the prince is to attend a ceremony on the Capitol steps that includes a 21-gun salute and a fly-over by the Texas Air National Guard.

--Willie Nelson is combining his annual Fourth of July picnic-concert with the second Farm Aid show and wants to have it in his hometown, Austin. “I know we need to do another Farm Aid and I know we want to do another picnic and we should do it here in Texas and here in Austin,” Nelson said. “It’s a natural combination.” Nelson had said earlier that he wanted to hold Farm Aid 2 in Yankee Stadium and also considered the Washington Monument. “But then I remembered this is sesquicentennial year in Texas and I felt it would be a shame to take the picnic out of Texas this year,” he said. The Austin site will be either South Park Meadows, where the last two Fourth of July picnics have been held, or the University of Texas’ Memorial Stadium.

--Joan Kennedy, former wife of Sen Edward M. Kennedy, played the piano, and Judy Collins sang to open a weeklong festival in Cambridge, Mass., to raise money for AIDS research and treatment. About 400 people packed the American Repertory Theater for the show that included actor Joel Gray and actresses Colleen Dewhurst and Kathy Bates.

--”The more we educate, the more we sit around like this and talk about human sexuality, the less we will have problems,” Dr. Ruth Westheimer told an audience of 2,000 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “If I can prevent one unwanted pregnancy, I’m doing my job.”