RUSH: I went to Missouri yesterday for the funeral of my mother’s best friend, Mary Frances Kinder, one of the most refined and dignified women ever. She had four sons, I grew up with all of them. She was in the blue-haired Bloody Mary group. She hosted the blue-haired Bloody Mary gang on many occasions. She was an excellent hostess. She passed away at 81. The funeral was yesterday at Centenary Methodist Church. Her sons all got up and gave short histories of her life. It was really an inspiration. It was unlike most funerals, it was not a dirge at all. It was really inspirational, one of the most inspirational funerals that I’ve been to. She and my mom were best buds. They sang together. My mom had a basset hound named Jason that we got from one of my dad’s cousins, just the greatest dog. I was maybe 12 years old when we got Jason. Jason would let you put a baseball cap on him, he wouldn’t care. In the wintertime, my mother put little red rubber boots on all four paws to keep him from slipping on the ice and he wouldn’t try to take them off.
He was just the greatest dog. They sang with him on stage with a straw hat on top of his head while they sang washboard-type music. They were just quite a pair. I have all the hope in the world they’re up there in Heaven singing again, that they found Jason and that they’re reliving some of those good times.