The Funeral
The funeral arrangements for Monroe were made by her second husband, baseball player Joe DiMaggio.
Marilyn Monroe was buried in what was known at that time as the "Cadillac of caskets" – a hermetically sealing antique-silver-finished 48-ounce (heavy gauge) solid bronze "masterpiece" casket lined with champagne-colored satin-silk; the casket had been manufactured by the Belmont casket company in Shadyside, Ohio. Before the service, the outer lid and the upper half of the divided inner lid of her casket were opened so that the mourners could get a last glimpse of Monroe. Hollywood makeup artist Whitey Snyder had prepared her face, a promise he had made her if she were to die before him.
The service was the second one held at the newly built chapel at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in West Los Angeles, and only 25 people were given permission to attend. Monroe's acting coach, Lee Strasberg, delivered her eulogy. An organist played "Over the Rainbow" at the end of the service.
Monroe is interred in a pink marble crypt at Corridor of Memories, #24. Hugh Hefner owns the rights to the crypt next to it. Monroe had visited the cemetery more than once as a struggling actress because Ana Lower, the adult to whom she had been closest during her juvenile years, had been buried there in 1948. Lower was related to Grace Goddard, Monroe's official guardian during much of her childhood. When Goddard committed suicide in 1953, Monroe, by then wealthy, arranged for her burial at Westwood.
DiMaggio had a half-dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years. Unlike many people who knew her, DiMaggio never spoke publicly about his relationship with Monroe. He never remarried.
Read more about this topic: Death Of Marilyn Monroe
Famous quotes containing the word funeral:
“Suddenly, she wasn’t drunk anymore. Her hand was steady and she was cool. Like somebody making funeral arrangements for a murder not yet committed.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)
“That poor little thing was a good woman, Judge. But she just sort of let life get the upper hand. She was born here and she wanted to be buried here. I promised her on her deathbed she’d have a funeral in a church with flowers. And the sun streamin’ through a pretty window on her coffin. And a hearse with plumes and some hacks. And a preacher to read the Bible. And folks there in church to pray for her soul.”
—Laurence Stallings (1804–1968)