This week, Nix is celebrating his 25th birthday, and his wife Izzy, who has been by his side since bursting onto the scene as a highly-touted recruit at Auburn, was ready to make his heart melt.

Who was he, why was he the one assigned To drive me from the house to the cemetery? The two of us in his Buick or Packard or some Colonial make, De Soto, Pontiac, Plymouth. I don’t remember who ...