Coco Chanel
As 1971 began, Chanel was 87 years old, tired, and ailing. She carried out her usual routine of preparing the spring catalogue. She had gone for a long drive the afternoon of Saturday, 9 January. Soon after, feeling ill, she went to bed early. She died on Sunday, 10 January 1971, at the Hotel Ritz, where she had resided for more than 30 years.
Her funeral was held at the Église de la Madeleine; her fashion models occupied the first seats during the ceremony and her coffin was covered with white flowers—camellias, gardenias, orchids, azaleas and a few red roses. She died in her infamous style, announcing: "You see, this is how you die."
Charles Gordone
On November 16, 1995, Gordone died of liver cancer. The cowboy poets and musicians of the Texas Panhandle honored him with a prairie funeral at sunset and scattered his ashes across the legendary XIT Ranch. In New York City, simultaneously, fellow actors, playwrights, and directors gathered to hold a vigil memorial for him at The Public Theater. Charles's daughter, critically acclaimed singer/songwriter/musician ("Butterfly Child", "Dancing on the Dragon", and "Phoenix From The Ashes: Rise" CDs) and author ("The Motorgirl Memoirs" on Amazon.com) Leah-Carla Gordone, spoke, sang, and played her guitar at the event, where Charles's wife, Jeanne, was present, along with many former cast members of "No Place To Be Somebody".