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Marilyn's funeral took place on 8th August 1962 in the chapel at Westwood Memorial Park, conducted by Reverend A J Soldan. The Pallbearers were: Sidney Guilaroff, Allen Abbott, Ronald Hast, Leonard Krisminsky, Clarence Pierce, Whitey Snyder. The guests invited to Marilyn's funeral were: Joe DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio Jr, Lotte Goslar, Dr Ralph Greenson and his wife Hildi, Dan and Joan Greenson (Dr Greenson's children), Agnes Flanagan, Anne Karger, Mary Karger, Aaron Frosch, Sidney Guilaroff, Mrs Eunice Murray, Mrs Bernice Miracle, Rudy Kautzsky, May Reis, Whitey and Beverly Snyder, Sherry Snyder (Whitey's daughter), Ralph Roberts, Pat Newcomb, Lee and Paula Strasberg, George Solotaire, Enid and Sam Knebelcamp (former foster parents), Pearl Porterfield, Milton Rudin, Pat and Inez Melson, Florence Thomas (Mrs Miracle's friend). Marilyn lay in a solid bronze casket, lined with champagne coloured satin, and was dessed in her green Pucci dress and green chiffon scarf, her hair was done in a pageboy style. During the funeral Marilyn's body was partially exposed. The service included the 23rd Psalm, 14th chapter of the Book of John, along with excerpts from the 46th and 139th Psalms, and reciting the Lord's Prayer. “Over The Rainbow” sung by Judy Garland was the music played at Marilyn's funeral, and Marilyn's eulogy was written and read by Lee Strasberg: |
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© Range, Bettman, UPI |
“Marilyn Monroe was a legend. In her own lifetime she created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived background could attain. For the entire world she became a symbol of the eternal feminine. But I have no words to describe the myth and the legend. Nor would she want us to do so. I did not know this Marilyn Monroe, nor did she. We, gathered here today, knew only Marilyn – a warm human being, impulsive and shy and lonely, sensitive and in fear of rejection, yet ever avid for life and reaching out for fulfillment. I will not insult the privacy of your memory of her – a privacy she sought and treasured – by trying to describe her whom you know, to you who knew her. In our memories of her, she remains alive, not only a shadow on a screen, or a glamorous personality. For us Marilyn was a devoted and loyal friend, a colleague constantly reaching for perfection. We shared her pain and difficulties and some of her joys. She was a member of our family. It is difficult to accept the fact that her zest for life has been ended by this dreadful accident. Despite the heights and brilliance she had attained on the screen, she was planning for the future; she was looking forward to participating in the many exciting things which she planned. In her eyes and in mine her career was just beginning. The dream of her talent, which she had nurtured as a child, was not a mirage. When she first came to me, I was amazed at the startling sensitivity which she possessed and which had remained fresh and undimmed, struggling to express itself despite the life to which she had been subjected. Others were as physically beautiful as she was, but there was obviously something more in her, something that people saw and recognized in her performances and with which they identified. She had a luminous quality – a combination of wistfulness, radiance, yearning – that set her apart and yet made everyone wish to be part of it, to share in the childish naivete which was at once so shy and yet so vibrant. This quality was even more evident when she was on the stage. I am truly sorry that you and the public who loved her did not have the opportunity to see her as we did, in many of the roles that foreshadowed what she would have become. Without a doubt, she would have been one of the really great actresses of the stage. |
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Now it is all at an end, I hope that her death will stir sympathy and understanding for a sensitive artist and woman who brought joy and pleasure to the world. I cannot say goodbye. Marilyn never liked goodbyes, but in that peculiar way she had of turning things around so that they faced reality – I will say au revior. For the country to which she has gone, we must all someday visit”. |
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