Fans Honor Marilyn Monroe at Westwood Village Memorial Park

Hundreds of Marilyn Monroe fans livened up the Westwood Memorial Cemetery on Sunday as they gathered to celebrate the Hollywood icon's life, 50 years to the date of her untimely death.

The cemetery, a lush haven tucked behind high-rises on Wilshire Boulevard, is the final resting place of Monroe. 

Her fans, many of whom sported 1950s get-ups in honor of the style icon, lined up in front Monroe's pink, lipstick-stained crypt and left flowers, drawings and handwritten notes in loving memory. Across the park, other fans gathered outside a chapel to listen to speeches at a service organized by a Marilyn fan club Marilyn Remembered.

The Sunday service was the biggest public memorial event in the park's history, said Jessica Dunn, Westwood Village Memorial Park spokeswoman. Although a number of other Hollywood stars are buried at the site (actors such as Natalie Wood and Dean Martin, to name a few) Dunn said none of them has a dedicated fan base like Marilyn's, which hosts a memorial every year.

Roy Harvey, 74, said he has spent every August 5 in front of Monroe's crypt for the past 25 years. He travels by plane to Westwood every year from his home in New York City. 

"This is the most people I've ever seen at her memorial before," Harvey said, smiling as he pulled a toothpick from the pocket of his electric blue three-piece suit. "Usually there's only 50 people or so. I'm always one of the more dedicated bunch."

For others, Sunday was the first time they had ever seen her crypt, or been around so many fellow fans.

"I was an emotional wreck this morning. Just thinking about being here, I was crying and shaking," said Paul Maggs, who traveled all the way from Kent, England, to attend a week of memorial events hosted by fan club Immortal Marilyn.  

"It's been a dream all my life to bring roses to her crypt," Maggs said. "It's amazing to share that love and adoration with other fans."

Inside the chapel, the nearly 200 fans who had sponsored the memorial service listened to speeches by the likes of Stanley Rubin, the producer of the film River of No Return, starring Monroe and Academy Award winner George Chakiris, who appeared alongside Monroe as a dancer in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  

"We've been planning this event for more than a year — organizing speakers and everything. But we didn't expect so many people to attend... there are hundreds," said Scott Fortner, operations manager of Marilyn Remembered.

While only sponsors could sit inside the chapel, fans gathered under a tent outside to watch and listen to a live stream of the service.

One fan silently cried as he listened to a speech by Louis Banner, a professor of history and gender studies at the University of Southern California and author of Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox.

"I look at her as an extraordinary expression of what it means to be an American and what it is to achieve the American dream," Banner said.

Fans who chose not to listen to the speeches spent time mingling with other fan club members instead, swapping Marilyn biography recommendations or engaging in debates about her personal life and the true cause of her death. Michael Curtner, 53, who traveled from Ohio to attend the week of memorial pool parties, tours and theatre shows, said he was sad to see the celebrations come to an end.  

He and Harvey debated about what it was that made them love Marilyn. It's Marilyn's mystique that really intrigued him, Curtner finally decided. That, he added, and a kind of empathy for her struggles with insecurity.

"Everyone just thought she was gorgeous and just wanted her for her gorgeousness but I think she wanted to be liked for just being herself," Curtner said, staring thoughtfully at his toes, which peeked out of his black high heels like a pair of miniature cherries. "But she had kind of an 'F you' attitude and she didn't hide who she was… that inspires me."

Harvey nodded his head in agreement; "Marilyn had balls," he said.

Curtner's partner, Dave Broering, chimed in to explain how, although he is not a diehard Marilyn fan, he admires the intensity of adoration she inspires.

"It was interesting, standing in front of her grave... I didn't feel much emotion," Broering said. "But you could see the emotion on other people's faces. It's amazing, the effect she still has on people."

Fan Niva Pemberton looked serene as she lay a bouquet of flowers in front of Monroe's crypt. Pemberton, who lives in San Diego, said she stops by Monroe's grave with a few red roses every time she is in the area (ten times and counting, so far).

"There's just something about her, the more you learn about her, the more you love her," Pemberton said, "She's just somebody who will never stop being loved."

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