SOUTHLAND : Family Bids Lucy a Private Farewell

Lucille Ball’s husband, Gary Morton, said today he and his late wife’s two children bade a solemn, informal farewell to television’s first lady of comedy at a private memorial over the weekend.

“There were just the three of us,” Morton said. “That’s what Lucy asked us to do. You couldn’t really call it a service. There was no clergyman present.”

Morton and Ball, who had two children by her previous marriage to Desi Arnaz, were married in 1961. The children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., joined Morton “to say goodby,” Morton said.

Morton declined to reveal where or exactly when the memorial was held. “She was very upset at the kind of thing that happened at Marilyn Monroe’s funeral,” he said, referring to the unruly mobs who turned out for Monroe’s burial. “We don’t even want to mention the name of the cemetery to keep the curious away,” Morton said.