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."
Conway LeBleu
Conway Charles LeBleu (1962–1993), a nephew of Conway and Virgie LeBleu, was one of four agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms killed in the raid of the Branch Davidian compound headed by David Koresh in Waco, Texas. Federal officials said that they were searching for illegal weapons at the compound. More than eighty of the Branch Davidians died in a federal raid in April 1993 after a two-month standoff. Conway Charles LeBleu, who was killed on the first day of the crisis on February 28, is interred at Consolata Cemetery in Lake Charles.