Mrs. Murret. One time I heard—it was a postcard, and I think it was the last Christmas that he spent in Russia, and he wrote this postcard, and all he had on it was, "Merry Christmas," and he said on it, "Write to my mother," and he gave me the box number on the card. Now, I wanted to keep this card, but I had the children at the house at the time, and I laid the card on the side, and I didn't copy the address when I did write out a postcard to send to him, and in the meantime Gene——
Mr. Jenner. That's your son Gene?
Mrs. Murret. Yes; he was at the seminary, and they were saving foreign stamps in connection with something over at the seminary, so he took that card with him, and after I had written the card to Lee, the children tore it up, so I didn't have the address any more.
When I wrote to Lee—I didn't want to write anything in a letter, you know, so I just wrote it on an open card, but the children tore that up and I lost the address, so I couldn't write to him at that point.
Mr. Jenner. You did write a card, but your children tore it up?
Mrs. Murret. Well, my grandchildren; it was just a postcard, you know.
Mr. Jenner. So there wasn't any communication between you or any member of your family and Lee while he was in Russia, is that right?
Mrs. Murret. That's right. We just got that one card from Lee, and I never answered it because the card was destroyed before I could mail it.
Mr. Jenner. When next did you hear about Lee? I mean now, before you saw him, when next did you hear about him?
Mrs. Murret. Well, I just heard that he was over in Russia, that he had defected to that country, but they came to New Orleans after that, and then they went back to Texas.