Burials

With his love of old-time Hollywood glamour, showy art and showmanship, Michael Jackson would probably have welcomed his family's announcement Tuesday that his remains will be interred in the star-laden, sculpture-speckled confines of Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale. Jackson will be interred Aug. 29, which would have been his 51st birthday, in an intimate morning service for family and friends in the expansive cemetery's Great Mausoleum, according to a statement from the family publicist.

Marilyn Monroe, dead 47 years, still carries enough cachet that a bidder on Monday offered $4.6 million for the crypt above the spot where she is entombed. Elsie Poncher, whose husband, Richard Poncher, is buried in the crypt at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, said she wanted to sell it to pay off the more than $1-million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home. If the winning bid on EBay is legitimate, Poncher will be able to do a lot more than just retire her mortgage.

Archaeologists have removed 174 sets of human remains from a controversial housing development under construction in Huntington Beach, bolstering claims that it was a significant prehistoric Native American settlement. Dave Singleton, program analyst for the California Native American Heritage Commission, said 87 sets of remains were removed before Hearthside Homes broke ground on its Brightwater development near the Bolsa Chica wetlands in June 2006 and 87 more since then.

No one could raise a flag -- or a controversy -- quite like white-bearded Thomas "Ski" Demski. His Long Beach neighbors once took him to court, alleging to no avail that he violated a noise ordinance by flying a 30- by 60-foot U.S. flag at night in his frontyard. A gadfly at City Council meetings, Demski regularly ran for the council or for mayor, campaigning on a motorcycle with a macaw, Peppy, on his shoulder.

Army Sgt. Timothy J. Jacobsen will finally be laid to rest today in the small Northern California town of Ferndale, his remains placed in the empty grave that has been marked by his tombstone since May 17, 1972. That date -- a year and a day after he went missing in Vietnam -- was when the U.S. government officially declared him dead. Jacobsen was on an assault mission near Hue in 1971 when his helicopter came under heavy fire, struck a line of trees and exploded.

Yolanda Montiel was only 10 years old when her older brother Luis Palacios was killed in Vietnam. Her memories of him are few but endearing, like the time he bought her a yellow hat or when he gave her piggyback rides. Over the years, Yolanda's siblings and her late mother would tell her stories about Luis, which included the nickname he gave her. "I didn't remember who used to call me rag doll," she said, "and it was him."

More than 15 years of acrimony came to an end Saturday when about 1,000 Native American remains that had been exhumed during construction were laid to rest and covered with white seashells during a sacred burial ceremony near the Westchester bluffs.

The body of soul singer James Brown has yet to be buried as attorneys and his children work to settle issues surrounding his estate, including where he will be laid to rest. For now, his body lies in his home on Beech Island, said Charles Reid, manager of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Ga., which handled the services. Brown died of heart failure Dec. 25 at age 73.

A Los Angeles judge Wednesday withdrew his request that Florida authorities preserve the body of Anna Nicole Smith for DNA testing. The action by Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider helps clear the way for the former jeans model and Playboy Playmate to be buried. Hearings are to resume today in Florida to determine who should get her body: Howard K. Stern, Smith's romantic partner; Vergie Arthur, her estranged mother; or Larry Birkhead, her ex-boyfriend.

Anna Nicole Smith is one step closer to burial. Parties vying for control over Smith's remains agreed Thursday to have the former Playboy centerfold's body embalmed at the Broward County medical examiner's office. In the week since Smith's Feb. 8 death, her body -- in cold storage at the coroner's office -- has been in legal limbo while three parties have fought over it. Smith's estranged mother, Vergie Arthur, wants to take Smith to her native Texas for burial.