The Very Special Wedding Episode!

It’s been only three weeks since Svetlana first set foot at Taliesin West, and she’s about to marry Frank Lloyd Wright’s protégé: William Wesley Peters. Could this be happily ever after?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
They say. The Irish goodbye is when you slip out unnoticed,
without bidding anyone farewell, an easy exit. The Jewish goodbye, however,
is when you do, in fact say farewell, but you
never leave. When we've decided it's time to leave a
dinner or a party or any kind of get together.
My husband Jordan prefers to just call it, give a

(00:22):
wave and walk out the door. Me when it comes
to the Jewish goodbye, I'm basically a rabbi. Have I
approved over time? No, I think you'd like to be
in a Jewish goodbye for hours? Some say I'm out
of bar mitzvah. To this very day. In March of

(00:43):
nine seventy sped Lana Alijeva finds herself in just such
a dilemma. She said goodbye, and she's ready to leave,
yet somehow compelled to remain at Talias in West Well.
She did have plans in San Francisco the following week.
She could also see the appeal of this community of
artists throwing flashy parties in the desert. Not to mention,

(01:05):
she was falling for West Peters, the tall, sad architect
with an Abraham Lincoln face. Fearing of involvement with this
charning men approaching me. I told firmly to my hostess
that I was delighted to be her guest, but that
now I must continue further my preplaned trip. Her hostess,

(01:30):
Olga Vanna doesn't like the sound of this. Why are
you in such a hurry? But I must leave us right,
I have ticket days I must leave. Why do you
have to me? Oh, because I have other and but
Easter is coming, Olgavannah declares, it's our biggest party of

(01:51):
the year. The desert is blooming just for you. And
then Olgavana asks slyly, by the way, I do like Chris,
Olgavana is gaze is powerful, almost hypnotics. Fed Lana admits
she likes West very much, but she really must be
going stay for another week. Old Gavanna implores that'll yet,

(02:20):
if I stay for another week, I'll never get out
of here. She might not be a member of my tribe,
but spent Lana is a practitioner of the Jewish. Goodbye
in the highest regard. She says goodbye to Old Gavana,
but she doesn't leave after one week. Oh no, she stays,

(02:46):
My name is Dan Catroser and this is s fent Lana,
s fent Lana. You wake up in the morning, you
live your day, and then you do it tomorrow and
over and over again and over again, and act one goodbye.

(03:22):
I must be staying so through Olga Vanna's irresistible powers
that Lana pushes her plans and extends her visit another
week through Easter. Now, as a Jewish kid growing up
in the nineties without cable, I spent my Easters watching
Franco Zepharelli's six and a half hour epic Jesus of Nazareth.

(03:45):
His disciples must have come in the night, removed the
stone and taken away the body. Now that I'm older
and wiser, I know that that was just a movie.
That Easter is the springtime holiday where a giant rabbit
lays eggs and children eat them because they are chocolate.

(04:08):
For the folks at tally Essen, Easter wasn't over the
top blowout bash. Easter was like all the other celebrations
at tali Essen, a monumental fair. That's Leslie Lockhart Bisharatte.
Her parents were both Fellowship apprentices. She grew up at

(04:28):
tali Essen and stayed there until she was nineteen. As
you can tell, I'm getting very excited talking to you.
Oh my god, is ever going to stupor no, are
you kidding me? I'm like, oh my god, are you
going to tell me everything? Leslie is in her seventies now,
but she recounted the Easter celebration as if she were
still a kid, just three ft tall, overcome by the

(04:51):
magic of it all. You know, the festivities were just
they had a childlike quality them because they had these
long strings. The balloons coming out of the reflecting pools
that would sore a woy up in the sky. They
were held in place with boulders in the bottom of
the pool. They festooned the whole Italians and West property,

(05:15):
and then the zillions of flowers, So the whole place
is decked out like a Christian fairytale wonderland. A hundred
and fifty people are here to feast and to party,
and the food preparations are elaborate, starting days in advance.
On the menu a sweet Slavic cheese called posca, dotted

(05:36):
with almonds and raisins. Oh and don't forget Olgavana's signature
Easter bread Baba, the Baba cooling when it came out
of the oven. That was like all hands on deck
with pillows of thin pillow cases and towels, and you're
rolling to Baba on the side cooling so it doesn't collapse,
so it stays light. Each step of the food preparation

(05:57):
was almost ceremonial. There was a two well, there were
certain people at telling us and who did it every year.
I found Olgavana's recipe for Baba in her autobiography. Here's
my favorite step quote. Twenty boys beat Baba four at
a time, and to hold the pan. Don't be too

(06:17):
gay at first, you may regret it. End quote. I
could write a follow up joke for this, but I
don't have to. And then there were the Easter eggs. Oh,
the Easter eggs. These architects who became little Michelangelo's, each

(06:38):
with her own flare. Dude, I've seen these Easter eggs.
They are intense, far beyond your average crayon and dip die.
There are portraits of Olga Vanna and Frank Lloyd Wright
wrapped around an egg, replications of paintings by Gustav Clint
and Da Vinci, and writes signature geometric patterns. They're vibrant

(06:59):
and detailed and kept the architects occupied together through much
of the evening. And you know who is a freakishly
good egg painter, West Sucking Peters. According to one newspaper article,
West painted fourteen eggs that Sunday first beet Lana, each
decorated with a medieval station of the cross hot. The

(07:20):
whole event of Easter Sunday and the days of preparation
and kinship leading up to it must have been dizzying
fir spet Lana. You know when people work together or
have an evening like that, there is such a strong
connection you You feel this common spirit and love and

(07:42):
reverence for the place. It was truly memorable. I'm trying
to place myself in set Lana's shoes, trying to see
this world through the eyes of a woman who grew
up in the gray scale of the Soviet Union, And
here she is in the most technical or world one
could imagine. Is she not Dorothy emerging from her black

(08:06):
and white Kansas house. Are the apprentices not Munchkin's parading
her through their utopian as This is very difficult not
to get charmed. It's very difficult not to get charmed.
After the festivities are over, West takes her out for
another dinner in Scottsdale. It had been just two weeks

(08:27):
since ft Lana had arrived at the Phoenix International Airport
and been picked up by Yavanna Lloyd Wright, who casually
remarked that spent Lana could be her sister. Two weeks
since Olga Vanna had embraced her by the front pool,
repeating her name over and over again. Two weeks since
she had first met West at a party throne in

(08:48):
her honor, where Olga Vanna proudly said West and spent
Lana are together again. She had stayed until Easter, just
like Olga Vanna had asked. Now she was free to
be on her merry way back to life as she
left it before she stumbled into this colorful desert mirage.
But something was still pulling her deeper, and it was

(09:12):
this evening over a meal at a French restaurant. That's
feed Lana says, she fully surrendered. The Jewish goodbye strikes again.
Act two. I don't like people who are happy. Now,
as you recall, West had already taken spent Lana on

(09:34):
a few dates outside the walls of tally Esen in
downtown Scottsdale. But on those dates, fet Lana describes West
as being quiet and removed. She knew the man had
stories to tell. He was frank Lloyd, writes protege after all,
and had married into the family by wedding Olga Vanna's
daughter the first set Lana, But West had revealed very

(09:56):
little about his personal life thus far. This even ng
is going to be different. This night, after the dizzying
affair of Easter, after all that world class egg painting,
This night, William Wesley Peters is going to tell speed
Lana his story, and it's gonna draw her to him
like a moth to a flame. We went to some

(10:18):
French place and ate and drink and said there until
the place was closed. And here he talked about himself.
He was full of pain. I always feel compassionate to
people who have some kind of yin or misfortune or whatever,
and he says those kinds of said. I don't like
people who are happy, go lucky, rich, successful me either.

(10:43):
I only like sad, unlucky, poor people myself. Now, look,
I wasn't there at the French restaurant when st Lana
fell for West. In fact, when I went to Scottsdale,
no such restaurant existed, but I found a record of one.
Shey Louis, a French joint that clows down in the eighties.
It's very possible that this was the room where it happened.

(11:05):
So let's go there now to say Louis, And remember,
I'm a playwright. I can't help a dramatize. According to
an old listing in the Arizona Republic, reservations are recommended,
but I bet West doesn't need one. He's west wearer
of tan suits and Lapis Lazuli bolo ties. He'd be

(11:29):
greeted at the door by the restaurant's owner, Louis himself,
who sports his usual black tuxedo and has the debonair
appearance of a retired James Bond. Louis would snap his
fingers and a waiter would instantly escort Mr Peters and
his unusual guest, a red haired woman with a wide
smile to match her wide eyes, to a table in

(11:50):
the back. Oh what a relief it probably is for
both of them to take their seats and study the
menu while some quiet French jazz drums the background. After
a long day of celebrating and mingling with hundreds of
people in the bright desert sun, finally it's just the
two of them in a dimly lit lounge spent. Lana's

(12:13):
focus is entirely on West, and while we obviously don't
have an audio recording of that date, we do have
West recounting his life story in an oral history interview
from June Nanto. I heard about the Frenchy rights starting
in a smooth dispensation where he had students are apprentices,

(12:36):
as we were called. God, He's so born to listen
to West's story of becoming Frank Lloyd Wright's first apprentice
is romantic. The m I t engineering genius who dropped
out of school, hitched a ride to tally Essen and
walked up the path to meet the master. And then
I saw him Mr. Right and he's certainly impressive, and

(12:58):
right away I decided that I wasn't going to go
back to and I said I was the first person
through a roll and sign up actually paid. West was
running towards the dream to study architecture at the foot
of a five ft eight giant. It was an exciting mission.

(13:19):
Everyone coming to gather to build something larger than life.
I wonder what West hold spet Lana that night. He
may have smiled as he finished his glass of wine
moved over to a Martini while he recounted the early
days of building tally Esen and the fellowship. We went
up in the hills and cut down big trees and

(13:42):
reports or sandstone for the hillside buildings, and limestone for
callias and proper everybody thravan entusiast. It was while hauling
firewood that West gets to know Olga Vans fifteen year
old daughter that Anna Hinzenberg Right, the first set Lana,

(14:03):
who franklod Wright had adopted as his own. It didn't
take long for them to fall hopelessly in love. At first,
it was a forbidden love. When the Rights found out,
they were furious betrayed. But when they cooled down and
spet Lana was old enough to marry, she and West
tied the knot. He became more than just the first apprentice.

(14:24):
He became family. You know. He was, of course the
Sudden Law, which gave him special status, but he also
was widely recognized by I think frankloud Right and everybody
at tally es and as very smart and very technically competent.

(14:45):
That's Harold Zelman again, co author of The Fellowship with
Roger Friedland. West was the engineer behind some of Wright's
greatest accomplishments, Falling Water, the crazy columns at Johnson Wax,
the Goggenheim Museum. But it wasn't just engineering proficiency that
endeared him to the other fellows. He was a punster,

(15:05):
he was. He was a practical joker. West was also
extremely generous, always buying gifts for the apprentices, staying up
with them all night while they were drafting. They looked
up to him. Here's Roger. He liked speed, he liked daring.
It was he who insisted upon getting this World War

(15:26):
two jeep that had a very narrow wheelbase and hence
made it dangerous to go too fast on a curve.
And that's what killed her. That's what killed sped Lana.
I imagine it's late at She Louis now after midnight.

(15:47):
The lights are at their lowest, the other diners all gone,
the olives waiting in the tiniest of pools in the
third or fifth martini, and West is finally telling the
awful tragic store of the death of his young wife
nearly twenty four years ago. Spent Lana Hinsenburg right Peters
was a young mother with two small kids in the

(16:09):
back seat, pregnant with her third. While West was busy
working at tally Essen, speed Lana was driving in the jeep,
the one West had chosen with the narrow wheelbase that
made it dangerous to go fast on a curve. She
got distracted the storm wheel. Turned out she was coming
over a bridge she had the car flipped over into
a stream stet. Lana was twenty nine, Daniel was just two.

(16:33):
The only survivor of the crash was West and speed
Lana's four year old son, brand Doc. He climbed out
of the muddy stream and ran a mile to tally Essen.
By the time West found out, it was far too
late to do anything. I can't imagine what it was
like to hang up the phone from a client and
look down at your four year old son, covered in mud,

(16:53):
alone giving you the news that the rest of your
family is dead. West took the guilt on himself off
for the death of feed Lannach. Seems quite clear. I
think you've always carried that guilt with him. I imagine
sped Lana's eyes glazing over in tears at West, this

(17:15):
stoic man's man, who had said so little in the
previous two weeks, and now here they are, just the
two of them, and he's bearing his soul, handing it
over to her like it was a spoonful of creme brulet.
I'm sure they ordered this was special Speed. Lana knew
in her heart that it was something special about her,

(17:36):
about the two of them, about the alchemy of two
grieving souls which can make a bond impenetrable. I felt that,
Oh my God, finally, finally, I would love to stay
with this man, in on him, end of my days.

(17:59):
The only problem is spent Lana doesn't know if West
loves her back. It's like a middle school crush in
your forties, and just like any crush in preteen, she
needs someone to mediate the budding romance. West. Do you
like spent Lana? Check? Yes, maybe no, Enter one matchmaking
mother in law. According to an unpublished chapter of Olga

(18:22):
Vanna's autobiography, when spent Lana returns to tally Us in
that evening, she is overcome. She runs to Olga Vanna's
private chamber, puts her head in Olgavonna's lap and exclaims, mother,
I'm afraid I'm falling in love with West. That's right.
Spent Lana called a woman she just met two weeks
ago mother and called her mother because everybody did, yeah,

(18:48):
everybody did, Okay. In nine seventy, Hello, Dolly was playing
at seventh and finally You're on Broadway. And if I
had to say I would one have asked Olga Vanna,
as Dolly Levi, musical theater's greatest matchmaker, give me Carol Channing.
I have always been a woman who arranges things like lunching, parties,

(19:12):
poke a games and loud. And what's amazing is spent
Lana lets her play the part. Olga Vanna has been
auditioning ever since that first night, when she declared emphatically
over dinner that West and sped Lana were together again,
repeating their names like a chant. Sped Lana had bristled,

(19:35):
but now spent Lana is love struck and vulnerable, throwing
herself at Olgavanna's feet, desperate for some motherly advice, and
old Gavanna, who has matched so many other Tali esen
couples throughout the years, is ready and rare to go.
Olga Vanna pushes prods pozzoings West all throughout tali Essen

(19:56):
at the mess hall, at his drafting table in the garden.
She cups her hands together dramatically and says, West, you
have a jewel offered to you right there for the taking.
Imagine I will die in much more peace knowing that
you are no longer alone. Mother in Law's m a right.

(20:16):
You know, I used to really not like olives, but
I wanted to be someone who likes olives, so I
forced myself to start eating olives, and now I like olives.
What I'm saying is spent Lana is an olive. And
after a few days of twisting, stirring, mixing, and meddling,

(20:37):
Olga Vonna tells fed Lana, perhaps you should be a
bit bolder. And it's this gas in the tank, this
magic bullet in the gun, this pickle from the deli
that pushes fed Lana over the edge to tell West
she wants to be married the next time they go out.
Sped Lana brings up the idea of marriage, and after

(20:59):
a mere twenty days of courtship, West says those magic words.
Every little girl dreams of hearing their prince charming deliver,
he says, and I quote sure pressure with the tombs.
Matrimony comes when I got my hand and Dan heday more.

(21:33):
After the break Act three, here comes the bride. Tuesday,
April seven, three weeks after Selana's arrival, the day of
her wedding to West. Girl moves fast in the grand

(21:58):
sunlit living room of tom Yes and West, with its
sloped wood and glass ceiling, stone walls, and burnt orange cushions.
People gather. Fancy people are there. Even fancier people were invited.
I found the invites while going through the archives that
Tally Essen. I'm just going through her everything for her wedding.

(22:24):
This is just insane. I wish that you could come on,
my love, Mrs Dwight Eisenhower, Mr Sterling Rockefeller, Miss Georgia O'Keefe.
I lost a paper clip. I should not be an archivest.

(22:44):
Most of the guests are members of the Fellowship, but
we've also got a Quaker minister, a reporter for the
Arizona Republic, and spent Lana's lone honored guest, her lawyer
Olga Vana's records of the wedding are meticulous and comprehensive.
There was the detailed day of itinerary, replete with which
architect apprentices would be assigned to park cars or serve refreshments.

(23:09):
Svet Lana and West wedding reception underlined and capitalized. Setting
up since at terrace, the tables, chairs and flowers, living room,
decorating you Vanna introducing the guest to Mrs Wright, set
Lana and West. Oh my god, all the fellowships will
be host that's oh my god, Ladies, powder room, Cornelia
and Eloi's men's room, Tony and Stephens. Oh my god,

(23:31):
Oh to be a fly on the duty. In those bathrooms.
The place is decked out in florals, Shye Louis, caters,
the or d'oeuvres, while a huge wedding cake, baked and
decorated with sweet peas by the fellows sits in the
kitchen with the rest of the wedding spread. They've prepared
a pirogue, hamburger pie, yum and cabbage work, and at

(23:56):
the center of it all is s ft Lana, beaming
like a young ride in a white knee length dress.
She just happened to pack in Princeton, and West, looking
dapper in a black tuxedo and bow tie. Drawn nearly
to tears of joy, Spent repeats her vows, faltering slightly,
holding West's hands tightly. In the presence of these friends,

(24:19):
I promised to be a faithful and loving wife. West
kisses his bride, and then so do all seventy five
of the guests. Wait a minute. Seventy five people kissed
the bride after the wedding. That's a lot of people
kissing in such a short time. Spent Lana had a
new home, she had a new husband, new friends. She

(24:41):
even had a mother and a sister. She hadn't had
a mother in thirty eight years. How did she feel well?
The Arizona Republic ends their wedding coverage with this line
from sped Lana, and then she says, could you add
somewhere how happy I feel? She has all Now, weddings
usually take months to prepare, but this one takes place

(25:05):
one week after. West says, sure, why the rush will speed?
Lana really wants to be married on April seven. She
believes the number seven holds some mystical powers in her life.
The phone number for the taxi and Delhi that drove
her to the US embassy seven five dash seven seven
seven the dates she flew from India to Rome March seventh,

(25:30):
sixty seven. Not to be captain obvious, but there is
a seventh day of every month. Hell, just a few
months down the road, speed Lana could be married on
seven seven seventy. But like Tom Petty one sang, the
waiting is the hardest part. So maybe it had something

(25:51):
to do with a lucky number. But maybe speed. Lana
also thought West would back out if she didn't move
at lightning speed. Or maybe this was just her being
characteristically impulsive. Remember, she hadn't originally planned to defect from Russia.
It was just that the pieces were in place for
a defection to happen when she first came here. She
clearly hadn't planned on marrying West, but the pieces were

(26:14):
in place, and she went for it hard. Oldavanna was
quick to oblige, and from what I can tell, she
used it as an opportunity for publicity to spread the
good word of tally Essen's offerings to potential students, donors,
and clients. Among all the international press spent Lana hadn't

(26:35):
wanted reporters at her wedding, so Olga Vanna invited just
one local newspaper. But Olga Vanna also planned a three
hundred person blowout and major press conference later that week.
You win some, you lose some. Three weeks ago, the
two mended tali Essen West, the Frank Lloyd Wright Architectural Foundation,

(26:55):
Neurophoenix Tuesday Night and almost absolute secrecy. They were mayor
read Today the new Mrs Peters talked about the private ceremony.
In the photos and videos from that week spent, Lana
is glowing, not a weary mother of two grown adults,
but a young, vibrant, beautiful woman with her whole life
in front of her. There's a thirteen minute newsreel that

(27:19):
I've watched over and over and over again. I had
to share it with my husband, Jordan's. The first few
minutes of the video are silent images of tally Essen West,
and then all of a sudden, sped Lana and West appear.
He's a footaller than her. He looks like a SNL
version of like a sexy Nixon. They wouldn't go with

(27:43):
sexy a Saturday Nixon. The audio starts When they reach
one of the sitting rooms, a tally essen, West in
his gray wolf suit sped Lana in a sleeveless white dress.
The to sit next to each other. And it's kind
of weird. Well, less is man spreading, but spot Lana

(28:04):
is I think as small as she could possibly be,
closed off and West is looking probably at the chair
which is for that looks like it's a furiture. Yeah, spit.
Lana's eyes bulge wide as she sits listening to West talk.
Reporters are asking him about the courtship, the romance, how

(28:25):
quick it was, how he proposed. She sits there waiting
for him to reveal something to divulge his true passionate feelings.
Mrs Peters, can you tell me something about your courtship? Oh,
it's very difficult question. Maybe, ah, well, maybe you would

(28:45):
further ask my husband. West just sort of sits there, stammering,
unsure of any answers, unsure of anything. Is he board annoyed?
Is his brains somewhere else? Entirely? Wow, we are not
here at us in the West. Are mutual feeling developed

(29:06):
very fast? And this is the result of that. That's
about the details. And then there's the most painful part
of the entire interview. Is it possible, Mr Peters, that
you would reenact for those of us who are not
here the kissing of the bride as the end of
the best conference. The interviewer has just asked the newlyweds

(29:28):
to kiss for the camera, and West rejects it in
the most formal and stoic way possible. Well, I don't
think that's I don't really think that's necessarily certainly no
reason to object to. So if I think that's a
rather private and personal matter, yes, it's a very romantic

(29:49):
thing with the American people. That's why I asked that.
West stairs blankly, and then the camera hands over to
spet Lana. She's looking down off to the side. West
maybe super uncomfortable on camera, a sexy sad Nixon, but
spent Lana seems to be a bit out of it too.
Is it because after three weeks of peaceful anonymity, the

(30:12):
last thing she wants is global media attention? Or is
it because Oldavana had just revealed to her that West
had a problem. On the eve she called me and
she told me West his tremendous did she cannot fade.
He's facing bankruptcy. West, in all his generosity, was a spendthrift.

(30:35):
He compulsively bought expensive clothes and jewelry and gifts, not
just for himself but for everyone. When I went to
tally Esen, some of his former colleagues told me about
how he'd leave whole coat racks of expensive, fashionable attire
for the other apprentices to just take. West was underwater
and spent Lana was the new lifeguard. Here she is

(30:58):
with Harold and Roger recount unting her talk with Olga Vanna.
I was kind of surprised because he looked wealthy. They
all looked wealthy. The whole place looked prosperous, and he
was chief architect. And how come he is in this well?
I didn't ask questions, but she says he has this problem.

(31:19):
Spent Lana had never had to worry about a financial
burden before marrying someone in communist Soviet Russia. Just meant
you split your potatoes. I think, I don't know, I'm
not that smart. Spent Lana doesn't really know or care
to understand the details of her wealth, but she knows
she has money, and she's a woman in love. What

(31:39):
better way to prove her love and devotion than with
a grand gesture of money. I said, oh, yes, Mrs Right,
of course, of course it's now our death. You know
it's our death. Of course Will will pay it all
bog design and she was pleased. Then we have my
last hypothesis. Spent Lana's awkness in that wedding news reel

(32:01):
stems from the fact that Olga Vanna was introducing her
to guests and reporters, not as a national bestselling author,
not as the new wife of tali Essen's chief architect,
not even as Joseph Stalin's daughter. She proclaimed, loud and proud,
this is my daughter, sped Lana. I knew there was

(32:23):
something deeply wrong in the identification with another woman who
died long ago, but it was too hate to think
or doubt. Sped Lana had a new husband in West,
a new mother in Oldavana, a new sister in Yavannah,

(32:45):
a whole new tali Essen family. But three weeks in,
how well could she really know any of these people?
Who exactly is Wes Peters, Who exactly is Olga Vona
Lloyd Wright? And why would Roger have this to say
about them? Had powers. There's no question about its psychological powers,

(33:08):
and she figured out how to control him and to
break him on the next episode of steed Lana. Stet Lana.
Stet Lana. Stet Lana is a production of iHeart Podcasts
and the documentary group I'm Your Host Dan Controlser. The

(33:31):
show was written and produced by me Adam Webber, Alison Joy,
and Catherine Isaac. We also serve as executive producers at
the documentary group. Our executive producer is Joe Bazilhouett's with
production oversight by Stacy Cleeger An additional support from Tom
Yellen and Gabrielle Tennenbau. Our I Heart Team is supervising
producer Casey Pegram and executive producer Maya Howard. Editing assistance

(33:55):
from producers Christina Loranger and Joey Patt. Original music by
Ella on is A cop Production counsel by Slas Eckhouse,
Dasty Haynes Locko, clearance counsel by Ballard spar Back checking
assistance by Megan Trout, Research assistance from Caleb Martin Rosenthal.
Special thanks to my husband Jordan's Siegel and Roger Friedland

(34:17):
and Harold Selman, authors of the book the Fellowship, who
kindly granted permission to include excerpts from their taped interview
with speed Lana. Excerpts from spet Lana Alujeva's book The Faraway.
Music are performed by Cassie Greer.