Foreign News: Death in the Valley

As the news spread to the remotest corners of Europe, swarms of gypsies got into their cars and trailers and headed for the town of Lendinara in the Po valley. There, in the center of the Piazza San Francesco, a great tent stood, and around it the gypsies gathered to begin the vigil. Inside the tent, surrounded by seven tall candles, Queen Nella ("Mimi") Rossetto, sovereign of one of the largest (estimated number: 10,000) and richest gypsy tribes in Europe, lay on a straw mat dying.

"One Can't Complain."In the 65 years since her birth in Bilbao, Spain, of Hungarian parents, short,...