LAS VEGAS (AP) — Kaye Lane's voice wavered. But like a summer thunderstorm, it was over almost as quickly as it started.
"I'm OK," she said, composing herself on the telephone. "But when I think about it, I break down."
Lane was speaking about her husband, Mills Lane, the legendary boxing referee and former Washoe County district attorney and Nevada state judge who suffered a stroke in 2002 at his home in Reno. His right side is paralyzed, and he is virtually unable to speak.
Together, Kaye and Mills Lane have traveled and searched for a miracle cure: New York, Ukraine, acupuncture, hyperbaric chambers, experimental drugs not yet approved in the United States.
Nothing worked.
"You try to make sense of it, and you just can't," said their oldest son, Terry Lane. "There was no indication whatsoever he was going to suffer a stroke. I still want to believe that it's a temporary thing and that one day he'll be fine again. You can never lose hope."
Lane, 70, spends much of his time watching television or movies with his son, Terry. Some days, "On the Waterfront." Other days, "Patton" or "The Godfather."
One of the iconic sports figures in Nevada pointed to the television to show how he stays in touch with boxing. He watches old fights on ESPN Classic, some with him as the third man in the ring.
He can't speak for himself these days. He answers questions with one or two words.
Does he miss being the third man in the ring?
"Yes," he said.
How is he managing?
He shook his head no.
"Anyone who has known a stroke victim with permanent damage knows that the physical and emotional effects can be devastating," Terry Lane said. "We try to make Dad as comfortable as possible and take things day-to-day. There are good days and bad days, peaks and valleys."
Lane worked more than 100 title fights, and he is coming up on the 10th anniversary of the last fight he refereed. It was a short night.
Former world champion Thomas Hearns knocked out Jay Snyder just one minute and 28 seconds into the first round of their scheduled 10-round fight on Nov. 6, 1998, in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.
"He was a great referee," Hearns said of Lane, who worked five "Hit Man" fights during Hearns' Hall of Fame career. "He was a fair, honest guy. He allowed you to do what you were supposed to do in the ring.
"I always liked it when he said, 'Let's Get It On!"'
By the mere command of his voice, Lane controlled the ring. From his signature phrase to stern warnings to the fighters, he kept combatants in line during his 33-year run as a referee.
Well, most combatants. Lane couldn't quite keep Mike Tyson from cannibalizing Evander Holyfield's ear in their June 28, 1997, rematch at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
It wasn't Lane's first brush with boxing's bizarre side. He was the referee on Nov. 6, 1993, when the "Fan Man" parachuted into the outdoor ring at Caesars Palace during Holyfield's heavyweight title fight with Riddick Bowe.
Lane watched Oliver McCall tearfully quit on his stool against Lennox Lewis on Feb. 7, 1997, at the Las Vegas Hilton. And Lane was the one who disqualified Henry Akinwande on Dec. 7, 1997, after he nailed Lewis with a low blow in their fight at Caesars Tahoe.
"He has the grand slam of bizarreness," said Marc Ratner, former executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission and a good friend of Lane. "But what Mills had was the respect of the boxers. When he issued his voice commands, the fighters listened. For a man small in stature, he had a big presence about him."
Veteran referee Joe Cortez said Lane set the bar high for other referees in Nevada.
"The entire boxing referee fraternity owes a lot to him," Cortez said. "He was a premier referee. He was very consistent and very fair with the fighters, but very firm."
Terry Lane, 25, and his 21-year-old brother, Tommy Lane, now run the boxing company, Let's Get It On Promotions, that Mills Lane started with Tony Holden in 1999. The brothers also help their father get his points across.
"We tell him everything that's going on with the company, and we see how he feels about ideas and people who we may do business with," said Terry Lane, who said the company might promote a card in Las Vegas in mid-December. "But I think it's difficult for him to not be able to go to the shows."
Mills Lane attended the first two bouts of a July 6, 2007, show the company promoted — the first boxing event he attended since his stroke.
"It was an emotional experience for us," Terry Lane said. "He truly loved being a referee. He used to say, 'I've got the best seat in the house!' And being a former fighter himself, he understood what was going on more than most and felt passionate about being the third man."
Mills Lane rarely gets out these days. Even his other passion, poker, has been curtailed.
Once in a while, Terry Lane drives him by the downtown Reno courthouse, which was named the Mills B. Lane Justice Center in 2006.
Yet, for all he has accomplished as a Hall of Fame referee, district attorney and judge, Lane is most proud of his military service.
"Marines," Lane said when asked about his most significant accomplishment.
"My dad always said going into the Marine Corps was the best thing he ever did," Terry Lane said of his father's service in the Corps, which began in 1956. "He said it taught him the discipline on which he based his entire life. He also started boxing when he was in the Marines."
That toughness helps keep Lane going, and he has made some progress since his stroke six years ago.
Kaye Lane said she trolls the Internet daily, hoping to find something they can pursue in yet one more attempt to help her husband recover.
"You never give up hope," she said. "But after six years, things kinda settle in, and you accept it."
Kaye Lane said she sees the world and her relationship with her husband differently now.
"I don't think I appreciated Mills. He was such a live wire. I always said, 'I have a tiger by the tail.' But the good part is in a weird way we've grown closer together. All the experiences we've went through. You see the world in a different way."
Terry Lane said he thinks his father feels guilty about needing help for simple tasks, like putting on a shirt.
"But I think he also has peace of mind in that he was able to provide for his family and give them a good life," the son said. "My dad is so stubborn. He wasn't prepared to accept what had happened to him. But now, he's dealing with it, and we're so proud of him for the way he's handling everything with so much grace and dignity."
Tommy Lane, now a senior at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., was 15 years old and attending high school in New York when his father suffered his stroke.
"Not to be able to communicate with words is very tough. But I think all of what he has been through has made me work harder," Tommy Lane said. "I want to represent him in a good way. In many ways, his still being around is an inspiration to me."
Kaye Lane, who grew up in Elko, said she always thought of herself as an independent pioneer woman. But she said she found a reserve of strength she didn't know she had.
"The lesson is to live in the now and appreciate the little things," she said. "He may not have the same body he once had, but he has the same soul. He's still Mills."