Doris Day, a great actress and singer who became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars during the Golden Age, died at the age of 97 two years ago. In addition to performing in nearly 30 films, she released over 650 songs between 1947 and 1967 and garnered numerous prizes for her contributions to music and film, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The beloved actress and singer died in 2019, but a close friend recently revealed that she did not want a burial, memorial, or gravestone. But why? Let us find out. There are numerous reasons to admire Doris Day, including her skill, love of animals, and humility. Doris was well-known and respected for her cinematic work during her 50-year career.
She rose to prominence with roles in films including Pillow Talk, Love Me or Leave Me, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. The 97-year-old married four times and had one child. Terry Mulcher, Day’s son from her first marriage to Al Jorden, died of cancer in 2004. Day was a well-known animal rights activist in addition to her film career. She was a kind individual who advocated for animals who lacked a voice.
Sentimental Journey, Secret Love, and Que Sera Sera were all inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and her animal-related activity culminated in the establishment of the Doris Day Animal Foundation. Doris Day died in 2019 at her home in Carmel Valley, California. She died of pneumonia, and her charity, the Doris Day Animal Foundation, confirmed her death, adding that the celebrity had requested no funeral ceremonies, grave markers, or other public memorials.
Instead, she was cremated and the ashes scattered.According to her close friend and manager, Bob Bashara, she refused to discuss the possibility of a funeral since she grappled with death.There was a legitimate cause for her ultimate requests. “She disliked death and could not be with her animals if they had to be put down. “She had a hard time accepting death,” he told People in 2019.
“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,'” Bashara said. “She had several when her will was drafted, and she wanted to ensure that they were taken care of. She did not want to talk about the pets dying.Day was an active animal rights activist since the early 1970s, condemning the wearing of fur and establishing the Doris Day Animal Foundation.
Her only child, Terrence “Terry” Paul Jorden, was born during her first marriage to trombonist Al Jorden, whom she met when she was sixteen. Jorden eventually changed his name to Terrence Paul Melcher after being adopted by Day’s third husband, film director Martin Melcher.According to Bashara, Day “drifted away” from formal religion when Melcher died in 1968, but he remained “a spiritual person.”
“She believed in God, and she thought her voice was God-given,” he said. “She would say, ‘God gave me a voice, and I just used it.'”Day withdrew from acting in the early 1970s, but returned for two television projects. Then, in 1985, she presented her own year-long television discussion program “Doris Day’s Best Friends” on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Bashara, Day’s friend and manager, is unsure why she was hesitant to hold a funeral, but explains, “I think it was because she was a very shy person.”He stated that Day knew her admirers liked her based on the letters she got, but she had no idea why. “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,” he said. She was cremated and her ashes spread. Her entire estate was donated to charity.