From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 12, 1972:

It was announced today that Kansas Sen. Robert Dole, Republican national chairman, and his wife Phyllis had divorced after 23 years of marriage. The divorce had been granted in an emergency-petition action on the previous day in Topeka. Mrs. Dole, 46, had sought the divorce on grounds of incompatibility. The two had married in 1948 at Minneapolis, Minn., where Dole had been hospitalized for war injuries and Mrs. Dole was an occupational therapist. In a news report on a subsequent day, Mrs. Dole said that the divorce had not been her choice, but was at the senator’s “urgent request.” According to the Kansas City Star, she had said, “I didn’t want to do it. I tried to stall. I wanted him to give me more time. I couldn’t get anywhere with him…. I’m still trying to find a reason why he feels the way he does. Since spring there has been a change in him. I think he has been working too hard.”