Pearl Bailey Pins Down Dreams for Fellow Graduates

--Georgetown University’s Class of ’85 included a 67-year-old woman who sang a song she wrote just for the occasion. Entertainer Pearl Bailey, the oldest member of the class of 1,364, received a bachelor’s degree in theology and hugged Georgetown’s president, the Rev. Timothy S. Healey. “Obey the Fifth Commandment,” she told the Washington audience. “Honor thy father and mother . . . who suffered, who paid, who loved. Nothing in Plato, nothing in Socrates, nothing in Aristotle will tell you what to do when you get out there and hit the bricks.” Bailey, who had been working on her degree for seven years, then sang a cappella: “Nobody can do it for you but you . . . All your dreams will simply be pinned on you.”

--The New Delhi compound where Indira Gandhi lived and governed India for two decades was opened as a public memorial. Her son and successor, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, laid flowers on the spot where she was shot to death. People from throughout India filed through the complex, which is surrounded by a low red brick wall, barbed wire and thick greenery. Mrs. Gandhi, the prime minister, was killed Oct. 31, and the government said her killers were two Sikh bodyguards. A stone platform has been erected where she was shot. Inscribed on glass above the platform are Mrs. Gandhi’s words that she might die “a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting.”

--A woman who discovered $4,000 inside a second-hand briefcase she bought for $1 at a Salvation Army Thrift Store in Traverse City, Mich., won’t be keeping the money. Rita Smith, 46, turned over the contents of the briefcase to state troopers last week, along with an international driver’s license in the name of Phillip J. Tucker. Now, Tucker has called to lay claim to his money, police said. “I didn’t really have any doubts that he would show up before long,” said Smith, who will keep the briefcase. A police dispatcher quoted Tucker as saying he plans “on giving her some sort of reward.” Smith said she will continue treasure-hunting at the thrift shop. “I go there every day,” she said. “I’ve found gold jewelry--even diamonds--Christian Dior and Sax Fifth clothing. I guess people just get tired of what they have. It’s surprising.”