From Marilyn Monroe to Princess Diana to Steve Jobs, a look at how celebrities were remembered at their funerals
Steve Jobs’ sister Mona Simpson delivered her brother’s eulogy during the Apple CEO’s funeral held several weeks ago. The touching words were published in the New York Times this weekend. Composing a speech worthy of a visionary like Jobs seems like an impossible task, but Simpson’s able words tell the story of a man who had a passionate hunger for knowledge, was dedicated to his family and loved ones, and never stopped following his own path. “What I learned from his illness, was how much was still left after so much had been taken away,” Simpson writes. It’s an intimate look into the late Pixar exec’s life and final days that paints an inspiring portrait of the “absolutist” and “romantic.”
We’ve gathered several other impassioned and inspirational eulogies past the break. Some will make you laugh before crying, while others are a tad confusing, but hopefully these words move you as much as they did us.
Lee Strasberg’s eulogy to Marilyn Monroe
Prestigious acting teacher and director of the Actors Studio Lee Strasberg gave screen icon Marilyn Monroe’s eulogy in 1962. Strasberg helped train the legendary star and noted, “The dream of her talent, which > she had nurtured as a child, was not a mirage.” Norma Jean had a troubled childhood-spending most of it in foster homes-but her young modeling career eventually led to screen stardom, which was sadly cut short > after her suicide. As Strasberg points out, “In her own lifetime she created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived background could attain.”
President Reagan’s national eulogy to the Space Shuttle Challenger crew
When the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart and exploded during its mission in 1986, its seven-person crew didn’t survive the accident – including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, who would have been the
first teacher in space. Because of this, there were many young students across the nation watching the launch on television who witnessed the disaster. President Reagan was due to give his State of the Union
address that day, but instead gave a national eulogy in honor of the Challenger crew. He directly addressed schoolchildren everywhere, saying:
“I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The
future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.”
To read the other 8 Eulogies, please click this following link:
