Mourners Recall Past
By United Press International

Mickey Rooney says the world was too late to understand and love Judy Garland. "If they could have taken her to their hearts a little sooner, she might still be alive today." said Rooney, a child star with Miss Garland at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and later her costar in the Andy Hardy series.

Ray Bolger who played the Scarecrow in Judy's best known film, "The Wizard of Oz" summed the feelings of many Hollywood personalities who knew Miss Garland. "I think the whole world probably burst the bubble on Judy Garland," Bolger said in New York. "Her last years must have been very difficult."

Margaret Hamilton played the wicked witch in "The Wizard of Oz" and first met Judy when she was 16. "When you work with someone on a picture you only know that side of them," Miss Hamilton said.

"But as far as I knew, she was a gay, darling, bubbly person terribly talented. Everyone loved her."

Fred Astaire, who co-starred with Miss Garland in "Easter Parade," said "I did only one movie with Judy and found her a delightful person to work with. I feel very badly about what happened."

George Jessel recalled that he gave the singer her stage name. 

"She was only 11 years old but she sang like a woman three times her age with broken heart. They laughed when I introduced her as Frances Gumm, so one day I said, Judith Garland."

LONDON - The yellow brick road led to torment and despair and loneliness for Judy Garland. The beautiful colors of her rainbow faded with the years. She was found dead in her bathroom Sunday.

Scotland Yard ruled out foul play - the body was unmarked - and planned an autopsy later today. A Yard spokesman said it could have been from natural causes. She was 47.

Miss Garland in 1967 provided in effect, her own epitaph: "When you have lived the life I've lived, when you have loved and suffered and been madly happy and desperately sad - well, that's when you realize that you'll never be able to set it all down. . . maybe you'd rather die first."

The man with whom she said she had finally found happiness, Mickey Deans, found Miss Garland's body at 11:00 a.m. Sunday on the bathroom floor.

"This is it. For the first time in my life, I am really happy," she had said on marrying Deans, her fifth husband, three months ago. "Finally, finally, I am loved."

Investigators found no suicide note in the two story home. They did not rule out an accidental overdose of medication.

A doctor who treated the singer-actress frequently in her bouts with drugs and alcohol, Philip Lebon, told a newsman she had cirrhosis of the liver and "how she managed to live this long, I just don't know."

Miss Garland, Deans and Phillipe Roberge, a show business friend, had spent Saturday night at the Deans' home eating and watching television. Friends described the singer in good spirits.

It was Miss Garland's portrayal of Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," walking the yellow brick road and singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," that made her famous at 17.

She played in 34 movies to the adulation of millions of diehard fans who overlooked her roughening voice and her tardiness to concerts in later years. Sometimes she didn't show up at all.

Those who knew her best of all, her children, said they drew comfort from the happiness she had brought to millions of people.

"The only thing that really comforts us now is the thought that nothing can destroy our love or disturb the legend that she created. To us, that always was and always will be a beautiful thing."

A family spokesman released the statement in New York on behalf of her daughter, singer Liza Minnelli, 23, and her children by marriage to Sidney Luft - Joey Luft, 14, and Lorna Luft, 16.

Miss Garland had been married to Deans, a 35-year-old former New York discotheque manager, for 100 days. A friend, singer Gina Dangerfield, said: "Judy was feeling on top of the world. They were very much in love and it seemed that she had found happiness at last."

The Judy Garland story was one of pills, divorces, on-stage collapses, illnesses, audiences that booed her and finished by yelling: "We love you Judy!" She reportedly attempted suicide several times. In the most publicized attempt, she slashed her throat at the age of 28.

But just when Miss Garland appeared washed up, she bounced back again.

Born Frances Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minn., she was the youngest of three daughters in a vaudeville team. It is said she made her first appearance in a Grand Rapids theater at the age of 30 months, singing "Jingle Bells," and that she was so thrilled by performing that her father had to pull her off the stage after she'd sung the number seven times.

A widely traveled child star from the age of 3, Miss Garland changed her name at the suggestion of George Jessel. Her first film in 1935 was a 2 reel short called "Every Sunday Afternoon," but her first well known movie was "Pigskin Parade." Her 1939 role in "The Wizard of Oz" catapulted her into the hearts of millions.

In 1940, 1941 and 1945 she was named one of the 10 highest paid stars in Hollywood, earning $150,000 a film. Her series with Mickey Rooney in the Andy Hardy stories was a national hit, still revived occasionally on the late-late show.

Her movies are estimated to have earned $100 million, but tragedy dogged her. At 18 she was under psychiatric care and consuming many kinds of pills.

She was divorced four times - in 1944 after a three-year marriage to composer David Rose; in 1951, after a six-year marriage to director Vincente Minnelli; in 1965 after a 13-year marriage to Sid Luft, her manager; and finally from actor Mark Herron, after a marriage of 19 months.

Her three children were in the United States when they learned of their mother's death.

Dancer Fred Astaire said: "She was unlimited in her talents and learned everything very quickly....one of the most talented women who ever lived."

"She was - I'm sure - at peace, and has found that rainbow. At least I hope she has," said Mickey Rooney.

LONDON - Pathologists investigating Judy Garland's death ran more laboratory tests today in efforts to determine whether in fact an overdose of sleeping pills killed her.

Scotland Yard sources said an autopsy performed Monday revealed evidence of an excess of sleep-inducing drugs in the star's system. Some pills were found in the two-room home where she was found dead Sunday.

"It is absolutely impossible to say if such an overdose was either accidental or otherwise." a Scotland Yard source said. Further lab tests on her blood and some organs were ordered.

Westminster Coroner Gavin Thurston called an inquiry for Wednesday to hear testimony, the autopsy report and the laboratory findings to legally affix the cause of the 47-year-old singer-actress' death.

Mickey Deans, her fifth husband, was a certain witness, whether in person or by sworn statement, for it was he who spent her final hours with the singer and found her dead at 11:00 a.m. Sunday.

Friends described Miss Garland on her last day as depressed in the early morning and then gay, laughing and joking in the evening over dinner in the Deans home.

Scotland Yard refused to comment on newspaper reports that the pills found in her home were 50 sleeping tablets out of a bottle of 100 she had bought Saturday. The Yard said the tablets were not found next to the body.

Plans got under way to ship the body to New York, probably early Thursday. There, it will be put on public display at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home, with a private funeral and burial on Friday.

A London doctor who treated Miss Garland in her frequent bouts with drugs and alcohol, Philip Lebon, had said she suffered from cirrhosis of the liver - and incurable disease that affects alcoholics.

"She was living on borrowed time." he said

LONDON - Judy Garland died in her London home Sunday from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills, a London coroner ruled today.

"There is no evidence at all of a deliberate action by Miss Garland and I want to make that absolutely clear." coroner Gavin Thursdon said at the brief inquest into the death of the 47-year-old singer.

"I shall consider the cause of death to be incautious self overdosage of the sleeping drug Seconal," he said.

The habitual use of the sleeping pills reflected the tortured life of the singer whose body was found in the locked bathroom of her home at 4 Cadogan Lane in London's elegant Belgravia section by her fifth husband, Mickey Deans, 35.

Both Deans and her London doctor testified she had habitually used Seconal "for many years." Deans was the chief witness at the inquest which disposed of two widely believed legends about the star - that she was a heavy drinker and as a result suffered from cirrhosis of the liver.

Thursdon said an autopsy on her body showed that Miss Garland had been addicted to sleeping pills for years.

"She took more Seconal than her body could tolerate." Thursdon told a courtroom packed with newsmen and fans of the dead singer in describing the cause of death.

"Whether she did this in a daze from previous doses is unclear. But one thing is certain - there is absolutely no evidence this was intentional." he said.

Among the witnesses was pathologist Dr. R. E. K. Pocock who testified he found 4.9 milligrams of Seconal in Miss Garland's blood. "an extremely high level" that would normally kill almost anyone instantly if taken in that quantity at one time.

But Pocock emphasized he found no inflammation of the stomach and no trace of barbiturates in the stomach, a medical fact showing the Seconal had been absorbed over a considerable period rather than taken in a massive dose.

Dr. John Traherne, Miss Garland's London doctor, testified:

"I don't think Miss Garland would have been able to sleep without Seconal." He testified she had been "habitually using" the sleeping drug "for many years."

This testimony was confirmed by Deans, a theatrical agent, appearing under his real name of Michael deVinko. Deans, 35, testified he found his wife of three months in the locked bathroom about 10:40 a.m. Sunday.

A family spokesman had said Deans would take Miss Garland's body to New York following the inquest. There, it will go on public view Thursday with the funeral and burial Friday.

NEW YORK - "We love you, Judy!" said the inscription on a rainbow shaped spray of multicolored carnations that stood beside the glass-topped steel coffin lined with blue velvet.

It was because Judy Garland's fans loved her that they came by the hundreds today under lowering skies to Campbell's, the elegant East Side funeral chapel where Rudolf Valentino, Arturo Toscanini, Diana Barrymore, Gertrude Lawrence, Judy Holliday, Montgomery Clift, Bert Lahr and Tallulah Bankhead have laid in state. Some had been in line 10 hours when the chapel doors opened for the viewing of the star's slight body dressed in dark grey crepe.

The occasion was heavy with sentiment. Paul Ambrose, 21, brought a battery-powered record player and Garland recordings and the strident yet haunting voice mixed with the traffic noises of Madison Avenue at the morning rush hour - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Most of the fans believed that the rainbow had not eluded Judy despite her tragic death from accidental sleeping pill poisoning in London last Sunday.

"Judy was just beautiful, no matter how ugly people talked about her." said Norman Chelf, 21, a male model. "She had a sad life almost up until the end, when she found love, and I think that's beautiful."

Miss Garland's husband of three months, former night club manager Mickey Deans brought the remains home early today by jetliner. The only jewelry viewers of the body could see was the interwoven ring made of three circlets of gold which Deans gave her when they were married in London, her fifth trip to the altar.

Among the earliest visitors to the funeral home were Kay Thompson and Miss Garland's son-in-law, singer Peter Allen. Allen's wife, Liza Minnelli, had made all the arrangements for the funeral service at the chapel Friday afternoon. The simple Episcopal rites will be performed against a background of favorite Garland songs played on the organ by the singers accompanist, Jack French.

NEW YORK - More than a year ago, an interviewer asked Judy Garland to explain the almost fanatic passion of her public following.

"I'll be darned if I know how to answer it," she said. "I don't know... what do you think... I don't know."

Yesterday, the mystique that she herself could never define in life, brought tens of thousands to her side for a final glimpse of the star, who died Sunday in London.

Some waited through the night until viewing began at 11 a.m. yesterday at the small chapel of the Campbell Funeral Home on Madison Avenue and 81st Street. They filed past the bier where Miss Garland, 47, lay on a buff-colored cushioning in an open white metal coffin, surrounded by dozens of yellow chrysanthemums and daisies.

This chapel was the scene of funerals for many famous people. Including Rudolph Valentino, Arturo Tuscanini, Gertruded Lawrence and Talullah Bankhead.

Miss Garland's familiar gamin features seemed composed; her eyelids shadowed in blue, her lips lightly painted with an orange-hued lipstick. She wore a long gray gown - the one she wore for her fifth wedding three months ago - with a belt of pearls, her hands clasped together over a Bible.

The death of the world-famous singer-actress was due to an accidental overdose of barbiturates, according to a coroner's finding in London. Her body was flown to New York last night, the city of her many triumphant returns to the Palace Theater, for yesterday's viewing and a private funeral today. Actor James Mason with whom Miss Garland starred in one her most famous films, "A Star is Born," will deliver the eulogy.

At least 5,000 people were lined up outside the chapel throughout the day and evening. Most of them seemed middle aged, although there were a surprising number of children, who had been caught by the Garland magnetism in the annual television showing of the classic, "The Wizard of Oz."

The adult fans, some of them wiping away tears, tried to articulate the fascination that had drawn them to the star in life and to the funeral home yesterday to wait hours for a brief look.

"I loved her," said Karen Schiff, 21, who had come from Washington, D. C. "When she got on the stage it was just like a religious experience."

"Her personality was overwhelming," said Gustavo Faxas, a singer. "She radiated love. She made herself lovable even when she had no voice left."

"She was very emotional person," said Joan D. Murphy. "This came through. She generated it to others."

Many in line had come out of curiosity more than sadness. For them, it was an opportunity - finally - to see Judy Garland in person.