A Festive Air Prevails at Rites for Publisher Malcolm Forbes
Former President Richard M. Nixon, actress Elizabeth Taylor, Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee A. Iacocca and hundreds of other mourners filled St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church here Thursday for a memorial service for publisher Malcolm Forbes.
Forbes, who died Saturday at age 70, loved a good time, from partying to racing motorcycles to riding in hot-air balloons, and his memorial service at the Park Avenue church had a festive rather than funereal air.
The service featured music on a variety of instruments loved by the Forbes magazine owner, including Scottish bagpipes and English horns.
Parked outside the church was Forbes’ red, tan and black Harley-Davidson, an America flag on one handlebar and the flag of Scotland on the other.
Nixon sat in the front pew of the landmark church, near his daughter Julie Eisenhower, Miss Taylor and former Mayor Edward I. Koch.
Other mourners included Barbara Walters, Joan Rivers and David Rockefeller.
In a eulogy, Forbes’ son Robert broke down as he said, “I have dreaded this moment. It has been a hell of a party. Thanks for the trip.”
Forbes’ most famous party was a $2-million birthday affair his children threw for him last year in Morocco.
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