Bunny was a storyteller, from a colorful and fascinating family. Bunny's actual given name was Ruth, but she was called "Bunny" even before she was born. The story goes that Bunny's mother was trying to explain to Marshall ("Micky"), Bunny's soon-to-be brother, that she was going to go to the hospital and bring home "... a baby in bunting." Micky had trouble with the word "bunting," so "baby bunting" became "baby Bunny," and the name just kind of stuck.

Once when Bunny missed a class in school, the principal gave her mother a call. "I'm calling to ask why your daughter Ruth was not in class today," he said. "I don't have a daughter named Ruth" her mother replied, and hung up the phone.

When Bunny was a student at Allderdice, she accidentally cut off half of her finger in shop class. She claimed that, before they took her to the hospital, they made her sign something. My friend Kate loved that story, and the idea that somewhere in a subbasement storage area, there was a rusty file cabinet full of blood-stained release forms.

I recently learned of a website that was posting a number of old Pittsburgh high school yearbooks online. I found Bunny's. All of the graduates had poems written about them. This was hers:

Bunny rhymes with "Sunny,"
That no one will dispute;
An all-around girl is she,
Short, and pert, and cute.

I'm definitely going to miss her.