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LOS ANGELES, Dec 2: Former Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison was cremated in a cardboard box just hours after his death, funeral directors said on Sunday.
Harrison’s family is preparing to scatter his remains in one of India’s holy rivers in accordance with his Eastern-influenced faith.
“All services were private and the cremation was carried out the same day as his passing (Thursday),” said a source at the funeral home, Hollywood Forever, which has buried stars such as Rudolph Valentino, Tyrone Power and Douglas Fairbanks.
“I believe the casket was a simple cardboard one,” said another source.
Intensely private, Harrison died on Thursday of cancer at the Los Angeles home of his friend Gavin de Becker, a security consultant who has helped stars ward off stalkers and unwanted media attention.
Few details about the circumstances surrounding his death have emerged, but according to reports in the British media, his family held hands and said a prayer around his deathbed before his body was removed to a crematorium.
Harrison died to the chants and prayers of devotees of the Hindu-based religion who were at his bedside, officials of the movement said here earlier.
VISIT TO INDIA: A spokesman for Harrison’s family said Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and son Dhani wished to make the visit to India and the ceremony at Varanasi “very private”.
“They don’t want to disclose their identities,” he said in New Delhi, adding that the family was accompanied by two members of the Hare Krishna movement.
He said Hare Krishna members around the world had been praying “for the soul” of the musician who became a Hare Krishna follower and believed in reincarnation.
“Harrison was our dear devotee,” said the spokesman for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement.—Reuters
