that she met her future husband, an American diplomat named Shirk. In February 1946, they married, in the first church service between a foreigner and a Russian since the Revolution. Perhaps because the wedding was attended by the whole diplomatic corps stationed in Moscow at that time, she was given permission to leave Russia with her husband. They left for the United States a few months later. Kyra hoped to continue her theatrical career in the United States and went to several auditions but without success, mainly because of her accent. Her husband bought a farm in Pennsylvania, but neither one of them knew anything about farming. They worked hard on the farm, and Kyra continued to sing. She had a musical program called Interlude with Kyra on a television channel in Pennsylvania. She also was invited to join International Platform Association and began a thriving career as a speaker. After nine years of marriage, she and her husband divorced, and Kyra moved to Los Angeles, where she became a contestant on Groucho Marx’s show You Bet Your Life. In 1955 she appeared on the show Big Surprise, but failed to win the $100,000 jackpot. She was offered a contract by a publisher to write her autobiography, and in 1959, Kyra, her first book, was published by Prentice-Hall. The TV appearance also led to more television and concert invitations. Unfortunately, Kyra had to stop singing many years later when a nerve of her vocal cord was nipped during a thyroid surgery. In 1960, she met and married Dr. George Wayne, a distinguished psychiatrist. They traveled extensively, leading to Kyra becoming an enrichment lecturer on Royal Viking Line cruises, which she pursued for 10 years. Her husband died in 1994. Kyra has one son and five grandchildren. She was passionate about dogs, some of which are the subjects of her books. Kyra died in June 2018 at the age of 99. Her writing Writing was part of her life from a very young age. A story she wrote at age 7 was published in a school magazine. In a special after-school playwriting program, she was part of a group of 10 students who created a Russian version of Huckleberry Finn for children’s theater, which, she believed, continued to be performed in Russia. After the success of her autobiography, Kyra wrote 13 more books on various subjects from Greek mythology to Russian