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Leeds: Sir Jimmy Savile’s headstone details revealed EXCLUSIVE
Details about the headstone of Sir Jimmy Savile can be revealed by his relatives.
It will include the epitah he wanted to sit atop his last resting place: “It was great while it lasted.”
There will be three adapted photographs included and inserted upon the grey granite from different stages of the broadcasting legend’s life.
One will be an image from his Top of the Pops days, one of him with dark hair, and also one in later life, when he was wearing his favourite round red lensed glasses, which were once stolen by a young girl fan when he was at a function at the Queens Hotel in Leeds.
His final wishes included to be buried in Scarborough at a 45 degree angle so he ‘could see the sea’. He had also asked for the simple wording to be inscribed.
Contrary to rumours, he had not requested for the gold coffin or to lie in state, but his relatives felt like it was the right thing to do to comply with his wishes.
Sir Jimmy’s niece Amanda Mckenna, 49, of Kirkstall, who helped to organise his funeral with her cousin Roger Foster, said: “It is going to be difficult to describe what his profession was, maybe DJ, broadcaster, entertainer, philanthropist, Knight of St Gregory and sportsman, it will be quite a list.”
Jimmy’s pal, Leeds hairdresser Howard Silverman, said: “He always told me that he wanted ‘It was great while it lasted’ on his tombstone.
The Leeds legend was found dead at his Leeds flat on October 29, 2011, just two days before his 85th birthday, after his heart gave in.
A massive three-day funeral extravaganza followed, which showed a mass outpouring of public grief. The huge gold-coloured steel coffin takes up three burial spaces at Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough.
His funeral cortege brought crowds to a standstill in both Leeds and Scarborough.
Amanda added that she was planning to plant some purple heather taken from the hillside in Glencoe, near where Sir Jimmy had his Scottish cottage and include a bottle of eight-year-old McDonalds Glencoe whisky, which she may pour over the grave.
The headstone will be installed in a few months time.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
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Derc
Monday, March 5, 2012 at 05:47 PMLet him who is without sin cast the first stone, sit down pope.
John44
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 08:30 PMTheres many things you could put on this obscene marker which cannot be written here. A man of many dark secrets who had the money and contacts to keep them hidden from the public and the media. Time will tell.
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