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for Bert. Without batting an eye she said, “You know, I think we ought to give a chair in his name,” and on his hundredth birthday, that's what we did. And it was her baby.

No, she never was in favor of giving any money to religious organizations. She wasn't opposed to it, she just wasn't that wrapped up in religion. She taught a Sunday School class when she was, I guess, in high school, and that threw her into the Bible and a lot of religious information. She couldn't square some of that with what was going on in the world; in fact, what went on in the world at that time. She turned from being, not a devout Methodist, but a run-of-line, interested, church-going Methodist, to saying, “You know, I'm going to live what I think is a sensible and a good life, and not get wrapped up in a lot of church things,” and she never did. In fact, except for funerals, I don't believe we ever attended a church service after we were married, and both her parents and my parents were much more church- oriented than the average family, certainly that I knew. Her mother was very religious, her father wasn't particularly. My mother was a good, average Methodist housewife. My father was interested in the Sunday School, but never as dedicated as my mother.

It haunts me yet, because she referred to it many times: that the second Mr. Cricket was her best friend. I used to think she was being just generous because she liked the dog. Now it haunts me a little bit, because maybe she was saying, “You know, you weren't my friend, you let me down.” If I let her down, it was that I didn't give her as much time as I think she wanted. She never made a big issue of it, but--

Did she have close friends? Who was she close to? Outside of the marriage?

Oh, yes. She had an artist friend by the name of C.P. Panellis [phonetic], an