Hollywood Notables Pay Final Respects to Nat King Cole

Feb. 18, 1965 - A long procession of Hollywood notables paid their last respects to Nat King Cole this morning at services in a small Episcopal church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Some 400 friends and relatives attended the hour-long, austerely dignified services inside St. James Church, while nearly 3,000 waited outside.

The singer died Monday morning of lung cancer at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica.

The crowds outside the church were somber and subdued this morning as the long black limousines deposited such celebrities as Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Edie Adams, Gene Barry, José Ferrer, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Thomas, Sammy Davis (left), Vic Damone, Frankie Laine, and George Jessel.

Opening the services, Jack Benny eulogized the 45-year-old Mr. Cole as a “great professional who gave so much and had so much left to give.”

After Mr. Benny’s eulogy, Mr. Jessel spoke, recalling that Mr. Cole was the first Negro admitted to the Friars Club, an organization of entertainers.

After the services, the widow, Mrs. Maria Cole, came out of the church with her five children. The funeral procession proceeded to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale for brief private interment ceremonies.

Honorary pallbearers included Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Mr. Benny, Ricardo Montalban, George Burns, Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Peter Lawford (right), Edward G. Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Jimmy Durante, Gov. Edmund G. Brown of California, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York, and Count Basie.

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