When I was a little fellow in the 1950s, my family's dearest friends were the Pervousins. Zenya Pervousin was the daughter of the field marshal of the Tsar's home guard. She was one of the teenage courtiers who were always with the Tsar's middle daughter.

She would say her favorite American song was "don't bury me in the dessert." After a while my folks realized she meant desert, not the after dinner treat, and further she meant, "Bury me not in the lone prairie."

I was in Ireland when she died in 1978, and I will always miss her.