(20 May 1998) Natural Sound

Frank Sinatra fans gathered by the hundreds outside a church today as family and a who's who of the entertainment world came to bid a final farewell.

More than 400 friends were invited to his noon funeral, a liturgy planned to feature uplifting music and remembrances by Frank Sinatra Jr., Gregory Peck and others.

The Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church had been transformed into a forest of white flowers for the service.

Sinatra's casket was blanketed with gardenias.

Mourners who entered the church today included former first lady Nancy Reagan, Tony Bennett, Joey Bishop, Don Rickles, Paul Anka, Tony Curtis, Sophia Loren, Wayne Newton, Milton Berle and Dionne Warwick.

Also seen were Red Buttons, Tim Conway, Diahann Carroll, Angie Dickinson, Marlo Thomas, Phil Donahue, Tony Danza, Ed McMahon and Tom Dreesen, the comic who opened for Sinatra for many years.

As a skywriter sketched a white heart in the sunny sky, Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, followed a procession of altar servers into Good Shepherd Church to celebrate the noon Mass.

A glossy white ticket with "Francis Albert Sinatra Funeral Mass" printed in purple was required to enter Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church, which was transformed into a forest of white flowers.

Sinatra's widow, Barbara, and a family contingent were to later accompany Sinatra's casket to the Palm Springs area.

The interment site at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City is where his mother, Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra, and father, Anthony Martin Sinatra, are buried.

Sinatra was 82 when he died Thursday of heart failure.

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