PicoZ

Frank Sinatra’s gardenia-laden casket was carried into Beverly Hills’ Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday night for the vigil in advance of his funeral mass, scheduled for Wednesday, and burial later in a family plot near Palm Springs. The interment site at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City is where his mother, Natalie “Dolly” Sinatra, and father, Anthony Martin Sinatra, are buried. Sinatra was 82 when he died Thursday of heart failure.

Tuesday night’s one-hour vigil — led by Cardinal Roger Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles — was private and said to be very emotional. More than 400 people attended. Sinatra’s widow, Barbara, was comforted by her son, New York attorney Robert Marx. A medley of Sinatra songs was played, a choir sang and there were reminiscences by Sinatra’s daughter Nancy and granddaughter Amanda. Tony Bennett also spoke before the rosary was recited. Choir member Chris Green quoted Bennett as saying of Sinatra: “We all fell in love, fell out of love, and fell in love again to the sound of his voice.”

Mourners included Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Eydie Gorme, Mia Farrow, Milton Berle, Connie Stevens, Wayne Newton, Lew Wasserman, Tom Selleck, Paul Anka, Joey Heatherton, Tim Conway, Bob Newhart, Ben Vereen, Ed McMahon, Anthony Quinn, Red Buttons, Marlo Thomas and Angie Dickinson. Pallbearers included Steve Lawrence, Don Rickles and Tom Dreesen, the comic who opened for Sinatra for many years.

ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaqpOdtrexjm9wanFhZ31wv8inmK2qkWLApr7Vopqeq12YvK65xKeanmc%3D