WESTPORT - Her house is full of objects that bring back memories -- a geode from the Saudi Arabian desert, pottery from Korea, a little buffalo made by Indians at St. Joseph's School in South Dakota. The long screens look like they are by an Oriental artist but they are her own artwork done while studying with a Chinese master.

And then there are medals and citations given to her husband, William J. Porter, for his work as an ambassador and peace negotiator under several U.S. presidents. Mr. Porter served in the Middle East, Morocco, Algiers, Vietnam, Korea and finally, as ambassador to Canada, before his death in 1988.

Eleanore Porter, 91, recalled some of the highlights of her well-traveled and well-connected life recently at her memento-filled house overlooking the Westport River.

She met her husband-to-be when she was a nurse in the 38th General Hospital in Egypt during World War II, a post she held for four years. Born in Philadelphia, she responded to the call for nurses in wartime without any hesitation.

"We didn't know where we were going," she said. "The first thing you know, we were down in South Africa. We went up the east coast of Africa to Egypt." Her hospital took care of the wounded from North Africa, China, Burma and the Near East. It also cared for some of the wounded from Europe. "

She met her husband-to-be in 1943 while she was on leave from the hospital in Syria. William Porter was serving as an attaché in Damascus. He had previously served as private secretary to the minister in Budapest, Hungary; vice consul to the U.S. Legation in Baghdad; and U.S. vice consul in Beirut, Lebanon.

As the war was winding down, all of the nurses and hospital staff were being sent to the Pacific. Faced with that prospect, Mr. Porter told Eleanore they should get married. They needed permission from her parents and the State Department. Just before the wedding, a colonel sent a private plane down to bring Eleanore, the chaplain and others to Damascus for the wedding.

"I was married in St. Anthony's Church in Damascus, Syria," she said. "Bill and I went to honeymoon in Lebanon at a resort hotel."

After the war, they returned home and Mrs. Porter gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl.

"From then on, we went to all of these different places," she said, including Jerusalem and Cyprus. Mrs. Porter has a large scrapbook of black and white photos, many of people in the streets, taken while she was in Egypt, Morocco and other places.

The Porters' children studied in French schools in Morocco as well as other places around the world. As a result of their studies in the Middle East, they children learned Arabic. Her son also learned Iranian, Mrs. Porter said.

Mr. Porter served as director of Voice of America in New York and served in Morocco before President John F. Kennedy named him U. S. Ambassador to Algeria. He served as deputy ambassador to South Vietnam from 1965 to 1967 under Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge although his rank was equivalent to that of ambassador.

Under President Lyndon Johnson, wives were not allowed to accompany their husbands in foreign service to Vietnam, so Mrs. Porter stayed primarily in Hong Kong.

Later, under Richard Nixon, Mr. Porter was asked to take a leading role in the Paris Peace talks to negotiate an end to the war in Vietnam. Afterward, when he was asked where he would like to go next, he said Korea and was made ambassador there. Mr. Porter served as ambassador to Korea from 1967 to 1971.

Mrs. Porter has a lot of fondness for Korea and the Korean people. It was in Korea that she studied art with a Chinese master.

"You move into an altogether different society, so different from Arabs," she said. "I found the Koreans very sociable, very nice."

When her son's wedding took place at the Presidio in San Francisco, Mr. Porter couldn't come because he was negotiating the release of the American pilot who was captured by the North Koreans.

As part of her duties, Mrs. Porter has entertained several presidents' wives. While in Morocco, President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon came.

"Pat stayed with me in the embassy," she said, adding that Mrs. Nixon was most interested in the children's hospitals, an interest Mrs. Porter, a former nurse, was also passionate about. "I took her all over to the hospitals, the children's hospitals," Mrs. Porter said.

Mrs. Roosevelt did not stay with Mrs. Porter but she visited while in Morocco. While she was there, Mrs. Porter's mother was visiting from Philadelphia.

"Mrs. Roosevelt was talking to my mother; she was in seventh heaven," Mrs. Porter said. She described Mrs. Roosevelt as someone who remembered names and facts about people and seemed interested in their children. "She talked to her like they were having coffee in the morning. She was like that, Eleanor Roosevelt."

While Mrs. Roosevelt is remembered as an activist first lady and very formidable, Mrs. Nixon is thought of as more reserved. But Mrs. Porter still found her very engaged. "Pat was a different person. She asked about the children in the hospital, the food, their medical care, education. I liked her very much. She was always what I expected a president's wife to be. She was really down to earth, good to everyone in the Embassy, all the staff."

Nancy Reagan also stayed with Mrs. Porter in Morocco, but not Ronald Reagan. Among the treasures on a bookcase is a medal of merit from President Ronald Reagan.

Mrs. Porter said the current happenings in the Middle East have her wishing she could talk with her late husband. But, ever the diplomat's wife, she did not give an opinion on the war in Iraq. The day of the interview, Jewish settlers were being moved out of the settlements in Gaza. The sight of protesting Jewish settlers obviously troubled her. Mrs. Porter said she wanted to ask her son, an officer in defense intelligence, what he thought about it.

Mrs. Porter did say she thinks President George Bush is too often unfairly criticized.

"I don't understand it," she said of the removal of Israelis from the Gaza Strip. "They were trying to do it for years and all of a sudden it happened. I don't see that much rejoicing."

The turmoil in the Middle East is disturbing "because it seems never ending," she said.

"My husband used to say, 'We'll never see peace in the Middle East, not in our lifetime.''"

By Peggy Aulisio

paulisio@eastbaynewspapers.com