Sen. Cranston to Wed for 3rd Time; Rite Set Christmas Eve

PALO ALTO — U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston plans a weekend wedding, which will be his third, and a honeymoon in “a private spot in Northern California,” he said after he and Cathy Lee Pattiz of Beverly Hills obtained a marriage license.

The 75-year-old Democrat and Pattiz, 49, got the license Monday at a county office in Palo Alto. They will be married Christmas Eve day at the home of Cranston’s sister in Los Altos Hills in a ceremony conducted by U.S. Judge Robert Peckham, a friend of the senator.

Cranston, whose second marriage ended in a divorce last May, has served in the Senate since 1969. He first met his bride-to-be in 1968 during his first senatorial campaign. The marriage will be her first.

“The proposal came as a complete surprise to me,” Pattiz said.

Cranston has announced he will seek reelection in 1992 to a fifth Senate term. His financial ties to Charles Keating Jr., who owned the scandal-ridden Lincoln Savings & Loan, are sure to be a campaign issue, but the Democrat has declared that he is confident he will persuade voters he did nothing improper in connection with the failed savings institution.