I want to do a lot more work on this page in the coming weeks to try and respectfully portray the funeral and final thoughts that her loved ones honoured her with, also the
eulogy
I know it may sound morbid, but if somebody that I love dies then I will always want to go to the funeral. Since nobody reading this is likely to have had the chance to attend Marilyns funeral I'd like to make this page quite extensive and informative. I just want to add that having said that, as we know, how a person lived is more important than how they were laid to rest...
These are the newspapers of the time.
Allan Abbott spent three days at Westwood Village Mortuary assisting in the preparation along with her hairdresser and make-up man furnished by her movie studio. Allan also placed a call for six uniformed Pinkerton guards to provide security at her service.
Prior to dressing Marilyn, the embalmer decided to use a surgical procedure to reduce the swelling in the back of her neck. He cut a little hair away, made an incision and sutured it up tightly. One of the partners in the mortuary, Mary Hammock remarked that Marilyn appeared to be too flat chested and didn't look as she had in life. The embalmer explained to her that this was because of the autopsy. A pair of breast enhancers were used, but they were too small to compensate for the effects of the post-mortem.
Using her brain, Mrs.Hammock
removed them from the chartreuse Pucci dress, and fashioned her own version out of cotton from the preproom shelf. When she finally finished she stepped back to check the results of her work and then said with relief, "Now that looks like Marilyn Monroe" One of Marilyn's favourite songs "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" was played at her funeral. She was laid to rest in the lime green Pucci dress in a bronze casket.
The End...
The doctor who performed Marilyn Monroes autopsy was the legendary
Dr.Thomas Noguchi
, who had the rather grim nick-name in the
media
as 'Coroner to The Stars'. He also performed the autopsy on John Belushi, Robert F. Kennedy, Natalie Wood and Janis Joplin. He graduated from Nippon Medical School in 1951; he was appointed a deputy coroner for Los Angeles County in 1961 and became the county's chief medical examiner in 1967. Dr.Noguchi (as always) conducted a very thorough and detailed examination of the person he was performing the autopsy upon. It is said that he examined 'every square milimetre' of Marilyn's body and yet did not manage to find a single puncture mark or evidence of any needle mark whatsoever.
At last, disapointed not to have a concrete answer, he reluctantly classified the cause of death as 'probable suicide' although in later years he was to say that he may have been wrong. One thing is certain, Dr Noguchi was the best at what he did and (as a personal opinion)I firmly believe he was the best person for the job, having studied forensic science and Dr Noguchi's work I have nothing but respect for him.
I decided not to put the autopsy report on the page itself as it isn't something that everybody would want to see, but if you do want to view the official report then please click on the link:
Autopsy Report
*****PLEASE NOTE***** I have NOT authenticated this following information yet. I can't seem to establish Jeanne Carmens credibility. I'm leaving it here now for you to use your own judgement and when and if I discover otherwise I'll remove or modify it.
Former B-movie actress and retired golf trick-shot artist
Jeanne Carmen
said that she and Marilyn were close friends and had met at a "sleazy" New York bar while they were studying method acting at Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio.
Carmen said that Marilyn called her the night of Aug. 4, 1962 asking for sleeping pills.
"But I was slightly crocked on champagne myself so I couldn't bring them over, otherwise I
probably would have been arrested," Carmen said. "That's how I know she didn't kill herself; she didn't have any sleeping pills. That and she was afraid of death."
*Note - it has also been said that Marilyn couldn't swallow tablets without water to drink and the photographs I've seen of the death scene clearly show that there is no glass or cup or tumbler in the bedroom. Whether or not it was removed by somebody is unknown but for me that is something that is strange.
Jeane Carmen, who planned to play golf with Marilyn the day she was found dead, said she still feels "awful" that she didn't save her friend's life that night.
To this day she believes that Marilyn was the victim of a murder and cover-up, despite the official ruling of suicide by drug overdose.
Jeane Carmen is not generally regarded as one of the most reliable of those who claim to have known Marilyn but even if Marilyn didn't get any pills from her that night, she certainly got them from somebody, one way or another.
The photograph below is of Abbott & Hast's 1962 Cadillac Eureka hearse carrying Marilyn's body at the lead of the funeral procession from Westwood Village Cemetery Chapel to the crypt.
Marilyn died in the early hours of August 4th 1962 in her Brentwood bedroom of an overdose of 47 Nembutal and chloral hydrate pills .
In 1955 while depressed, Marilyn called the Bolenders, who had fostered her as a child.
She dialled the number of the deeply religious and austere family who had raised her from birth to 7 years of age and asked Albert (Wayne) Bolender):
"So, are you disappointed with how my life turned out?"
He was to say in the eighties that in retrospect he wished he and Ida had been allowed to adopt Norma Jeane. In answer to the question her foster father softly replied: "Norma Jeane, I will always love you."
