The Funeral and Casket Details of Doris Roberts

Introduction

For nine seasons Doris Roberts played Marie Barone, the mother who arrived unannounced, rearranged the kitchen and meant every word of it. She died in her sleep on 17 April 2016 at the age of 90, still working, and she had appeared in a television movie the year before.

What happened after that is mostly a blank. No funeral has ever been reported, no burial and no cremation, nothing about a casket, and no resting place. The farewells that were public happened in two other places, on a square of Hollywood pavement two days later and on a Broadway stage a month after that.

The Life and Legacy of Doris Roberts

Roberts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on 4 November 1925 and grew up in New York. The theatre held her for decades, and TheaterMania puts her Broadway debut at The Time of Your Life in 1955 and counts more than ten Broadway credits, among them Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers and Terrence McNally's Bad Habits, one half of which, Ravenswood, brought her an Outer Critics Circle Award in 1974. Television took her early too, in Studio One, Naked City and The Defenders, and it was Lily Tomlin who saw her in a Broadway play and brought her to Los Angeles for The Lily Tomlin Comedy Hour.

The 1980s gave her Angie and then Remington Steele, and her first Emmy, in 1983, for a guest appearance on St. Elsewhere. Marie Barone came in 1996 and ran until 2005, and the Television Academy's own record of the show lists seven nominations for the part and four wins, in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. That made five Emmys from eleven nominations across her career. She co-wrote a memoir in 2005, Are You Hungry, Dear? Life, Laughs, and Lasagna, and worked in films including The Rose, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and Madea's Witness Protection.

The News of Doris Roberts' Passing

The news came out on Monday 18 April 2016 through a family spokeswoman, Janet Daily, who had been told by Roberts's son, Michael Cannata. Roberts had died overnight in her sleep in Los Angeles. Daily said she had been healthy and active, and the Associated Press reported that the cause of death was not immediately known.

It became known a few weeks later. Her death certificate recorded a large hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident, which is a massive stroke. Eddie Van Halen and Luke Perry also died after strokes.

The Funeral Arrangements for Doris Roberts

No funeral for Doris Roberts has ever been reported. There is no date, no venue, no officiant and no attendance. Her family said nothing about a service, and nobody who spoke publicly in the weeks that followed, including her own son, described one.

No funeral instructions of her own have been made public either. Other people did settle that question while they could. Elizabeth Taylor left written instructions for her own funeral and Muhammad Ali planned his whole sequence himself, the sort of thing that gets decided through casket pre-planning or a wider funeral plan. Bea Arthur and Wilt Chamberlain had no public service either.

The Casket Details of Doris Roberts

Nothing about a casket is on the record, and neither is the choice that would have come before it. No outlet has reported whether Doris Roberts was buried or cremated, and no resting place has been made public. A casket becomes a matter of public record when there is an open service, a procession, or a family willing to describe it afterwards, and none of those happened here. The shapes and materials a funeral in 2016 would have been choosing between are set out in our guide to celebrity casket types, alongside our caskets, coffins and cremation urns.

Mary Tyler Moore was buried with nothing about her casket ever described, and Jim Henson left no resting place that anyone has published. For Doris Roberts the physical trace is somewhere else entirely, in a square of pavement on Hollywood Boulevard and in a theatre in New York.

Attendees and Eulogies

The first gathering was private, and it was not a funeral. On the Wednesday after she died, cast members, writers and producers from Everybody Loves Raymond met for dinner. Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Monica Horan Rosenthal, Tucker Cawley, Aileen Cawley, Tom Caltabiano, Aaron Shure and Mike Royce were there, and the show's creator Phil Rosenthal posted a photograph of the table, writing that old friends had got together to raise a glass, and a plate of pasta, to her. Romano talked about her energy and her spirit, and Heaton called her a consummate professional who loved life and her grandchildren.

The public memorial came in May 2016, at the Ambassador Theatre in New York, where she had appeared in 1972 in The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild with Maureen Stapleton. The Associated Press, in a report by Mark Kennedy, said that Les Moonves of CBS, Phil Rosenthal, David Hyde Pierce and her son Michael Cannata all spoke, that Terrence McNally and Tyne Daly read messages, and that Barbara Cook sang Here's to Life. Romano called her the most valuable player of the cast and something close to a second mother, and said she was at her best showing the love underneath the complaining. Hyde Pierce, a friend since 1992, described her as fiercely loyal and said he valued her candour. Fred Rogers was mourned at a public event months after his own private funeral in much the same way.

The Impact on Fans and the Industry

Two days after she died, a memorial wreath was laid on her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star sits at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard, across the street from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and it had been dedicated in the live performance category on 10 February 2003. The Walk of Fame's own record of her star notes the wreath, and ABC7 in Los Angeles reported it on 19 April 2016.

The industry answered through its archive. The Television Academy Foundation published a reel of clips from the long interview she had recorded for the Archive of American Television in 2005. The Television Academy also holds the recording of her accepting the Emmy for supporting actress in a comedy series at the 57th Emmy Awards.

Legacy and Remembering Doris Roberts

The part of her life that reaches furthest past her television work is in the congressional record. On 4 September 2002 the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on the image of aging in media and marketing, and Doris Roberts was one of the witnesses. Senator John Breaux introduced her as an Emmy winning actress working in Los Angeles. She told the committee that she was in her seventies and at the peak of her career and that society still considered her discardable, that age discrimination was a crime and not simply a sad situation, and that the word old should give way to older. She cited a Screen Actors Guild survey on how older people are shown on screen, and the entertainment industry, she said, was among the worst offenders. Her testimony is printed in full as Senate Hearing 107-797.

The Bronx Walk of Fame inducted her in 2007, in its actors category, and her Hollywood star had been dedicated four years before that. Neither is a resting place, and for Doris Roberts those two markers and one night in a Broadway theatre are close to the whole of the public record. Lucille Ball and Diane Keaton were each remembered without a public funeral as well.

Conclusion

Doris Roberts worked for seven decades and died in her sleep at 90, and the record of how she was sent off runs to almost nothing. No funeral, no casket, no grave that anyone has published. The firmest fact about the end of her life is the stroke her death certificate recorded, and that only emerged weeks afterwards.

What there is instead is a wreath laid on a star two days later, and a theatre in New York in May where the people who had worked with her for nine years stood up and talked about her. For an actress who spent a career playing a mother who could not leave anything alone, it is a quieter ending than the character would ever have allowed.

Sources

• Associated Press, obituary of Doris Roberts, 18 April 2016, carried by CBS News
• Associated Press, Mark Kennedy, report of the Ambassador Theatre memorial, May 2016, carried by the Southeast Missourian and NBC New York
• Television Academy, Emmy Awards and nominations for Everybody Loves Raymond
• Television Academy Foundation, Remembering Doris Roberts, 19 April 2016
• Hollywood Walk of Fame, official record of her star
• Bronx Walk of Fame, inductee record, Bronx Tourism Council
• United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, The Image of Aging in Media and Marketing, 4 September 2002, Senate Hearing 107-797
• TheaterMania, obituary and Broadway credits, April 2016
• ABC7 Los Angeles, report on the memorial wreath, 19 April 2016
• NBC Bay Area and Entertainment Tonight, reports of the cast gathering, April 2016
• Press Trust of India, report of the death certificate, May 2016
• The Shubert Organization, Ambassador Theatre