Perot gets surprise 80th birthday bash

DALLAS, June 9 (UPI) -- About 1,000 people turned out in Texas for a surprise 80th birthday party for H. Ross Perot -- held three weeks ahead to make sure he would be there.

The celebration was held Tuesday at the headquarters of Dell Services in Plano, The Dallas Morning News reported. Dell Inc. bought Perot Systems Corp. last year, but Perot still takes an active part in the business.

Perot's son took his father to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas to get him off the premises while party preparations were under way.

Ebby Halliday, who at 99 is an old friend of Perot's in more ways than one, sang a song she had written for him, accompanying herself on the ukulele. Perot also received a flag and pole for the museum and an old newsreel that showed him shaking hands with President Eisenhower when he graduated first in his class from the Naval Academy and a book of birthday wishes from friends who included President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, and Barbara Walters.

Perot was born June 27 and likes to be out of town on that date to avoid surprises.