``We will continue in his footsteps to do as he directed to keep the Church of Satan going and keep it strong,'' daughter Karla LaVey said.
LaVey, 67, died of pulmonary edema Oct. 29 at St. Mary's hospital after years of heart problems.
Born in Chicago, LaVey was a man of many interests. He worked over the years as a lion trainer, professional organist, crime photographer, artist, hypnotist and psychic. But he was always drawn to the unexplored and unexplained, family members said.
He founded the Church of Satan in 1966 and made national headlines the next year for performing a satanic wedding, then baptizing his first daughter in the Church of Satan.
But LaVey's brand of satanism was not about evil or animal and child sacrifice, family members said. It was more about rational freethinking and a disdain for the hypocrisy he believed corrupted Christianity. The satanic images were simply convenient symbols intended to provoke a strong reaction and force thought.
He preached living for the day, instead of for an afterlife that nobody can prove exists, they said. He did not believe in the devil as an anthropomorphic being with horns and a tail, but rather as a Jungian archetype conjured up by mankind.
``My father was considered by some as the world's most dangerous man, but he would never hurt a living thing,'' Karla LaVey said. ``My father loved animals and children.''
``He wasn't what people would perceive him to be,'' said his grandson, Stanton LaVey, 19, of San Mateo. ``He was a sweet and caring, highly intelligent individual. This guy was cooler than most friends of mine.''
Still, LaVey played the image to the hilt. He was often seen walking around the neighborhood, bald head gleaming, black cape flapping behind him. For years, he kept a lion and a tarantula as pets and he spent hours each day playing eerie organ music that could be heard on the sidewalk outside his home.
The family home, a late 1800s Victorian hidden behind a chain link and barbed wire fence, is painted black throughout with red ceilings, pentagrams and satanic statuettes. Daggers and skulls hang on the walls next to a coffin with a plastic owl perched on top.
LaVey stopped holding meetings at the home in the 1970s, but continued a high-profile existence, appearing on hundreds of talk shows and entertainment programs. He eventually became known as ``The Black Pope'' and acted as a consultant on ``Rosemary's Baby,'' where he played the part of the devil.
He wrote five books, including The Satanic Bible, The Satanic Witch and The Satanic Rituals, of which there are more than one million copies in print combined. Each has been translated into nearly every major language.
His final book, Satan Speaks, is scheduled for release next spring.
LaVey suffered heart failure in 1990 and in the final years, rarely left home.
Along the way, he went through some difficult financial and family times, his estranged daughter, Zeena LaVey said. He declared bankruptcy in the 1980s after splitting with her mother. Zeena LaVey eventually split from the church, too, and began to question much of who her father claimed to be.
``I began to see that it had really been started as a lark, a practical joke,'' she said. ``I felt that he had betrayed something that he had started -- opened a Pandora's box that snowballed and got away from him. That he basically was tampering with things he did not totally understand. That he was betraying the very forces he claimed to be in league with.''
LaVey is survived by two daughters, Karla LaVey and Zeena LaVey; a son, Xerxes LaVey, born to companion Blanche Barton; and a grandson, Stanton LaVey of San Mateo.