Once upon a lifetime: Princess Yasmin Aga Khan keeps the memory of her famous mother alive by helping to fight Alzheimer's and save the memories of others.

Town & Country, June, 2005 by Guernsey, Diane

"I DON'T JOIN boards, I don't like committee work, I don't like to give speeches, and I especially don't like to raise money," said Princess Yasmin Aga Khan when she was invited to participate in the activities of the fledgling Alzheimer's Association in 1982.

But that was then; this is now. "In more than twenty years," says association founder Jerome H. (Jerry) Stone, "this gentle, unpretentious person who said she would never raise money has raised more than $40 million for Alzheimer's."

When Stone and Yasmin first met, her mother had only recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Unlikely as it seemed, the princess's initial rebuff was actually the first step on a path that plunged her deep into the thickets of philanthropy. There she...