Edith Massey - Later Career and Death

Later Career and Death

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Massey capitalized on the infamy of Waters' films by touring as the lead singer of a punk band, Edie and the Eggs. She also posed for a series of greeting cards. Later, when the Baltimore winters became too much for her to endure, she moved to Venice, California, where she opened another thrift store with the money she earned from acting in Waters' films. The year she died, Edith starred in the film Mutants in Paradise. She had been cast in Paul Bartel's Western parody Lust in the Dust opposite longtime co-star Divine, but the producers were looking for an actress with a different nuance and Edith was also in poor health so she was replaced by Nedra Volz.

Massey died in 1984 due to cancer and complications from diabetes. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, where other culturally prominent individuals such as Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin have also been buried.