Estranged parents to attend Coleman funeral

Gary Coleman’s family is planning a memorial service but hasn’t decided whether it will be private or public, a representative for the late actor has said.

The funeral will be held on Friday or Saturday at a funeral home in Salt Lake City, Utah, his attorney told UsMagazine.com. “At this point, it looks like it’s going to be held at a place called Lake Hills Mortuary,” Randy Kester said. “We haven’t pinned that down exactly yet.”

Coleman’s parents Sue and Willie Coleman, who saw little of their son in the past twenty years after a bitter lawsuit, plan to attend the service.

“It’s been kind of hard” for Sue, he said. “There are a lot of emotions surrounding all of it.”

His parents still speak highly of their son, despite being depicted in media as villains.

“We never stole from our son,” Sue Coleman told People, “We always had his best interests at heart. After we stopped hearing from him, we reached out to him anyway we could. Over the years, we sent him birthday and Christmas wishes through his agents and managers because we often had no phone number, no address to reach him. But we always hoped someday he’d come around.

“We want him to be remembered as the talented young man he was,” she said. “We never stopped being proud of Gary.”

Coleman died last Friday of a brain haemorrhage after being taken off life support in hospital, aged 42.

Source: Press Association, US Magazine, People