Doris Day will have no funeral or memorial service following her death, aged 97. The Hollywood legend passed away at her home in Carmel Valley, California, on Monday and left very clear instructions in her will that there will be no funeral and no headstone to mark her grave.
© Photo: Getty ImagesDoris Day died aged 97
Her manager and close friend Bob Bashara revealed Doris' wishes, admitting that he is unsure why she did not want her successful career to be remembered, but hinted it could be because she was "a very shy person".
"She never let her celebrity affect her and who she was, and she was always the little girl from Cincinnati who was extraordinarily talented and went out in the world and did what she loved to do despite herself," Bod told People. "She was guileless, and I had discussions with her about how popular she was, and she would say, ‘I don’t understand it’ about why she was so loved."
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Bob also admitted that Doris, who made Que Sera Sera a hit, didn't "like to talk about" a prospective funeral or memorial. He added: "She didn’t like death, and she couldn’t be with her animals if they had to be put down. She had difficulty accepting death. I’d say we need to provide for her dogs [after she died], and she’d say, ‘I don’t want to think about it’ and she said, ‘Well, you just take care of them.'" Another friend also added that Doris "didn’t want any fuss. She just wanted to disappear."
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The Hollywood star's death was confirmed in a statement by the Doris Day Animal Foundation, a charity she set up in her name, which said she "had been in excellent physical health for her age, until recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia". The statement added that Doris "was surrounded by a few close friends as she passed."
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