1,200 Pay Final Tribute to Danny Thomas

Danny Thomas was remembered by hundreds of friends and relatives Sunday as “the best one,” a generous man whose proudest accomplishment was the founding of a research hospital for children.

About 1,200 people attended a public funeral Mass for the entertainer at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, and his body was entombed during a private service on the grounds of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The hospital, which Thomas founded, is recognized as an international leader in leukemia research.

Thomas died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home. He was 79.

Former opera singer Marguerite Piazza, a friend of Thomas and a frequent performer at benefits for the hospital, sang “Oh Danny Boy” as mourners filed into the cathedral. A children’s choir sang during the Mass.

“You was the best one,” said Phil Donahue, who is married to Thomas’ daughter, Marlo. He said he was quoting a fan who once approached Thomas after a show and praised him that way.

A Lebanese government official posthumously awarded Thomas the Lebanese Order of Merit. Thomas was born Muzyad Yakhoob to Lebanese parents.

His founding of the children’s hospital was the result of a prayer he said when he was 26 and had only $7. The devout Roman Catholic asked St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of lost causes, for a sign that he should stay in show business.

Thomas went on to win an Emmy for starring in “Make Room for Daddy,” one of the longest-running family comedies on television--1953 to 1964. He acted in several other TV shows and movies and produced TV programs such as “The Andy Griffith Show.”

When Thomas visited Memphis two days before his death to mark the hospital’s 29th anniversary, he said his only epitaph should be: “St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Danny Thomas, founder.”