LAGUNA BEACH : A Salute for Former Resident Bette Davis
A memorial service is being planned on Oct. 20 in Laguna Beach for actress Bette Davis, a one-time resident of the city who died of breast cancer in France on Friday.
Harry Moon, a longtime Laguna Beach resident, said Tuesday that he is arranging the “gathering of remembrances” for “friends, acquaintances and fans” of the 81-year-old actress at Wood Cove Beach. The 5 p.m. event will be held below a cliff where Davis once lived.
“In an interview on the Johnny Carson show, she once referred to the Laguna Beach residence as her favorite and still thought of it as home,” Moon said.
Moon said those wishing to participate in the sundown gathering at the end of Diamond Street are invited to bring “informal flower offerings.”
He said the service will include speeches by many longtime residents who knew Davis when she worked for one night in the 1957 Laguna Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters.
Other Laguna Beach residents remembered Davis fondly.
“She was fascinating and quite a character,” said Betsy Paul, who worked with the Laguna Playhouse with her husband, David, for 52 years.
“She was a very gracious lady,” added Sally Reeve, a Festival of the Arts spokeswoman.
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