Keith Morrison

Keone Reed and Reese Washington are associate producers.

Susan Nall is senior producer.

Adam Gorfain is co-executive producer.

Liz Cole is executive producer.

And David Corvo is senior executive producer.

From NBC News Audio, Bryson Barnes is technical director, sound mixing by Bob Mallory.

Nina Bisbano is associate producer.

Sometimes, in moments of crisis, it's instructive to look back in time, to think anew about the old family stories we once found so amusing.

Like the night of the Shrine Dance in Conway, South Carolina, way back in 1988.

Family stories have a way of fusing fact and fiction together after a few dozen tellings, and this is one of those.

It was getting late, the story goes, and Chris was getting antsy.

He'd wanted to speak with Nancy's father, but he knew the timing needed to be right.

When he finally saw his chance, Chris asked O'Neal Cannon to step outside.

What followed was a long story about Nancy and a squabble she'd once had with her brother Neil when they were kids.

Something of a backyard baseball game.

Anyway, this is how Nancy tells it.

What Chris was thinking as he listened to Nancy's father way back then, we cannot know.

But listen he did, polite as any supplicant would be, as the story went on and on, until O'Neill Cannon said this.

According to family lore, Chris stood there slack-jawed as Nancy's father got to the point.

Rather appropriate, don't you think?