What Deathcare Professionals (and the Families You Serve) Can Learn From Celebrity Deaths
The recent tragic drug-related death of 31-year-old One Direction singer Liam Payne has sparked a good bit of discussion on why fans of celebrities mourn them just as deeply as they would a deceased family member. The phenomenon of celebrity grief is very real, and for many of Payne’s young fans, this may be their first exposure to death and mourning. Deathcare professionals who understand the impact of this particular kind of loss will be better prepared to share this knowledge when a family questions why its happening to them or their children.
The validity of celebrity grief is just one lesson one can learn from the death of beloved celebrities. These high-profile passings — and often, their aftermath — can also help you to explain key concepts to the families you serve. Here are some examples of how you can use real celebrity situations to better your business and support survivors.
Prince: Don’t die without a will
Despite his vast and complicated collection of assets, musician Prince did not have either a will or an estate plan in place when he died in 2016 at the age of 57. As a result, the probate process for Prince’s $156 million estate took more than six years to settle through the court system. Prince died with no spouse or children, so his six half-siblings were named heirs. Three sold their stakes to a Primary Wave, a music publishing company, while the other three maintained their portions. The protracted probate process included equitably splitting Prince’s intellectual property (music catalog, likeness, name, etc.) rights, real estate, and $6 million in cash.
Lisa Marie Presley: Directors will go above and beyond to help, no matter what (or how long) it takes
As the only child of the King of Rock and Roll, Lisa Marie Presley would have been a celebrity even if she hadn’t had her own music career and married two very famous people (Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage). Sadly, Lisa Marie died suddenly in January 2023 at the age of 54, but she left a lesson for deathcare in her posthumously-published memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown. In the book she describes her grief after her 27-year-old son Benjamin’s death from suicide. She also admits to keeping his unembalmed body in a coffin with dry ice for two months in a 55-degree-temp bedroom as she mourned his loss and decided where to bury him. Presley’s funeral director patiently guided and assisted her with these preparations, serving her slightly unusual needs until she was ready for her son’s final disposition.
Kobe Bryant: Put your intentions in writing and keep documents updated
Basketball phenom Kobe Bryant wasn’t just talented on the court; he was also a successful businessperson who understood the importance of creating a highly detailed estate plan. However, after his death in a helicopter accident in 2020, his family realized that he’d missed two important additions: He never added his youngest daughter, Capri, to his trust, and despite verbally committing many times to “take care of” his mom, he never explicitly spelled out his intentions in his official estate documents.
Casey Kasem: It’s not enough to just say you want to be buried
The 2014 death of America’s DJ Casey Kasem from a dementia-related disease was tragic enough, but the drama his family created before and long after his passing was even worse. Kasem’s wife Jean and his children from a previous marriage took several of their contentions against one another to court, but while those proceedings were playing out, Jean quietly shipped Kasem’s body to Norway for burial in an unmarked grave. His children claim she did this just to spite them, and claimed Kasem had told them he wanted to be buried at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, there were no documents to prove this. Ten years later, Kasem’s daughter Kerri is still hoping she can one day have her father’s body transferred back to the states and properly memorialized with a marker.
Paul Walker: You’re never too young to pre-plan
Actor Paul Walker’s recurring roles in the Fast ‘n’ Furious movie franchise had helped him to amass a $25 million estate — all of which was inherited by his 15-year-old daughter upon Walker’s tragic death in 2020. Although he was only 40 years old when he died, Walker had already created a will that created a trust for his daughter and specifically outlined his wishes as to who should be his daughter’s legal guardian.
