Last big screen legend given Catholic send-off

THE funeral Mass at a Paris Catholic church this week of one of the filmworld's all time greats, Marlene Dietrich. was attended by as many as 1,500 friends and admirers.
The Catholic service for the icon of glamour whose husky voice catapulted her to fame in 1930s Germany took place in the city's Madelaine Church.
"Everyone knew her in life as an artist of'film and song, and her strong and tough stands," the priest officiating at the funeral said. "She lived like a soldier and would have liked to be buried like a soldier."
A wreath of white lilies and pink and yellow roses from the French President Francois Mitterand was laid at the church altar, where Miss Dietrich's coffin lay draped in the French flag, in tribute to the 90-year old filmstar,
Miss Dietrich's body was later flown to Germany for burial next to her mother. But the crowds expected to accompany the coffin to the graveside were absent.
She turned her back on Germany during the Hitler years. Neo-Nazi groups have warned that Miss Dietrich's grave will be targeted for attack.
According to her lawyer, she decided to be buried in Germany, which she had decried since the War, after the Berlin Wall fell.