Mickey Rooney’s family, estate reach agreement over actor’s remains: Star will be buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Rooney’s estranged ex-wife Jan believed the actor should be buried in a series of family plots purchased with her before they separated two years ago. However his lawyers said the star had voiced a change of heart in the years following their split, especially after he accused one of Jan’s sons of elder abuse that wiped him out financially.
BY Nancy Dillon
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, April 11, 2014, 12:15 PM
Updated: Friday, April 11, 2014, 6:40 PM
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The battle over Mickey Rooney’s body was laid to rest Friday with an agreement to bury the Tinseltown titan at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
“We worked out a full agreement. There should be no declaration of war over the body,” Rooney lawyer Vivian Thoreen told the Daily News.
“Mickey will be buried at Hollywood Forever with a small family reception that will be private,” she said.
A judge approved the settlement Friday morning after three of Rooney’s biological daughters made a surprise appearance in court and signed off on the pact.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/GC ImagesMickey Rooney will be laid to rest at the famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery.Fellow silver-screen greats Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield and Rudolph Valentino have gravesites at the famous cemetery where Mick Jagger recently held a memorial for his fashion designer girlfriend L’Wren Scott.
“He’s going to be with his friends,” daughter Kelly Rooney, 54, said.
The daughters said they still had concerns over the administration of their late father’s estate but declined to confirm any firm plans for legal action.
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He left a new will signed last month that named stepson Mark Aber, his caretaker in the last year of his life, as the primary beneficiary of his $18,000 estate.
The will specifically omitted Rooney’s biological kids because the screen star considered them financially independent, Thoreen said.
“It’s not over,” daughter Kerry Rooney, 53, said outside court, declining to elaborate.
Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesMickey Rooney’s ex-wife Jan Rooney had been at odds with the actor’s lawyers since his death on Sunday.“Mickey had his mother’s remains moved to Pierce Brothers and had consistently indicated that he wanted to be buried there alongside his mother, myself and my boys,” she wrote to the court. “Despite my strong desires to be buried beside my husband, I feel that I owe it to Mickey’s fans to allow Mickey to be buried alongside other members of Hollywood royalty.”
Rooney’s lawyers and daughters said Friday that the prolific “Boys Town” star had voiced a change of heart in the years following his split from Jan, especially after he accused one of Jan’s sons of elder abuse.
“He said there was nothing for him there, in Westlake. He told us that a lot, personally,” Kelly Rooney said Friday.
Mickey Rooney sought a voluntary conservatorship in 2011 to get away from Chris Aber, the biological son of Jan Rooney who’d been managing his affairs for a decade.
He sued Chris for elder abuse claiming the stepson withheld food and medication and bullied him while blowing his money on a Porsche, a $100,000 race car and a lavish and reckless lifestyle that left Rooney deep in debt.
Rooney testified about his “unbearable” treatment in Washington before leaving Jan to live with her other son Mark Aber in Studio City.
Thoreen said before his death, Rooney told Mark and his conservator Michael Augustine that he wanted to be buried somewhere with a connection to either Hollywood film stars or military veterans – far from any plot that Chris Aber might claim.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland pose in a promotional photo of 1938's 'Love Finds Andy Hardy.' Chris Aber and his wife, who have denied any wrongdoing despite agreeing to a financial settlement in the elder abuse case, will not be allowed to attend the memorial service, the new burial agreement obtained by The News states.
Rooney married eight times and had nine kids, though one son died as an adult.
Thoreen said an unidentified individual had stepped forward to help pay for Rooney’s burial at Hollywood Forever. She said the estate lacks the resources to pay for a larger public tribute but that the door was open to offers from another benefactor.
“The hope is that we can work with a studio or someone generous or kind enough to help with resources to put something up for Mickey,” Thoreen said. “And to the extent we can do something like that, we agreed Jan should be permitted to attend if she wishes.”
The new burial agreement explicitly states that Jan “shall not attend any such events with either Christopher or (wife) Christina Aber.”
ndillon@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/mickey-rooney-family-estate-reach-agreement-actor-remains-article-1.1753434#ixzz2znx0Gubs
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