Clintons visit sick friend in Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - President Clinton cleared his morning schedule Wednesday and rushed home to Arkansas to visit a longtime friend who is terminally ill.

Clinton, joined by Hillary Rodham Clinton and daughter Chelsea, flew to Fayetteville to visit Diane Blair, a former political science professor at the University of Arkansas, and her husband, Jim. The couples have been friends for nearly 30 years.

Mrs. Blair is suffering from cancer.

The Clintons arrived in a dreary, steady rain, bringing with them a large bouquet of flowers.

After the visit, Mrs. Clinton got into a small jet, presumably headed to New York and her Senate campaign. The president and Chelsea returned to Washington on Air Force One.

The visit was Clinton's third trip to Arkansas to see the Blairs in less than three months.

The friendship dates to the early 1970s when both Clintons taught at the University of Arkansas.

Mrs. Blair left her political science teaching post at the university last fall because of her illness.

Clinton, then governor, officiated at the Blairs' 1979 wedding, and Hillary Clinton served as what Jim Blair described as ''best person.'' When the Clintons were married, they had the reception in the backyard of the Blairs' home.

Jim Blair was Hillary Clinton's adviser during a nine-month period in 1978 and 1979, when she turned a $1,000 investment in the cattle futures market into nearly $100,000. At the time, Blair already was one of the state's most prominent trial lawyers. Later he became general counsel for Tyson Foods Inc., one of the state's most powerful businesses.

The two couples have kept in frequent touch by telephone. Often when they've returned to Arkansas, the Clintons visited the Blairs in this college town or at the Blairs' vacation home at Beaver Lake.

On their last visit, in April, the three Clintons and the Blairs took a meandering motor trip through town and the university campus.

They stopped in front of the law school, where a brass plaque commemorates the president's and first lady's days on the faculty. Clinton began teaching there in 1973, Mrs. Clinton in 1974.