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You are here: Home / Confessions / art / Pardon My Dust

Pardon My Dust

November 29, 2007 urngarden.com

dorthy parker

Over the holiday weekend we caught an old favorite, “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorthy Parker, and was reminded of the author’s tragic ending.

Four suicide attempts, no heirs, her will was simple: she left her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King. Parker was cremated and her ashes sat on a shelf at the crematory for six years.

A year after Dorthy’s death, Dr. King was assassinated and the Parker estate rolled over to the NAACP. Meanwhile, her ashes had been mailed to her attorney’s office where the box resided in a filing cabinet for 15 years.

In 1988, someone figured out that Mrs. Parker’s ashes were unclaimed, New York tabloids ran stories and readers sent in letters about what should be done with the dust. The NAACP stepped in and took the box and dedicated a memorial garden at the national headquarters in Baltimore, and finally interred the ashes there.

dorthy parker memorial

source: dorthyparker.com

Filed Under: art, ash scattering, cremation, Memorial Service Ideas, obituaries, urns Tagged With: ashes scattering, dorothy parker, obituaries

About urngarden.com

Urngarden.com has been active in the funeral industry since 2004 and strives to educate and comfort family and friends that are grieving the loss of a loved one. We provide beautiful cremation urns and memorials.

Reader Interactions

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  1. Melwye.Com » Pardon My Dust says:
    November 29, 2007 at 8:22 AM

    […] Steven Parker wrote an interesting post today on Pardon My DustHere’s a quick excerpt […]

  2. Deena on Funeral Education | Life in the Garden says:
    October 16, 2009 at 12:52 PM

    […] are opting to keep the ashes in the home. When Deena asks the families if they’ve considered arrangements for guardianship later, the families often don’t know what they are going to […]

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