Word: colombey
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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With glacial calm, Madame de Gaulle asked that news of the General's death be withheld "until I can notify my family." She quickly reached her daughter Elizabeth in Paris, who set out for Colombey with her husband General Alain de Boissieu. Son Philippe, a navy captain stationed in Brest, was more difficult to locate. As a result, Pompidou was not notified until 4 a.m., and it was not until 17½ hours after his mentor's death that he finally went on television. "General de Gaulle is dead," he said. "France is a widow...
...last effect to be one of grandeur in sheer understatement. De Gaulle insisted on an "extremely simple" funeral, "without the slightest public ceremony." The gravestone, he directed, should read only CHARLES DE GAULLE, 1890-____. He was to be buried in the churchyard of Notre Dame de Colombey, next to his daughter Anne, who was born retarded and died in 1948 at the age of 20. He had always had a deep and very special love for his handicapped daughter. "He walked with her hand-in-hand around the property," recalls one Colombey resident, "caressing her and talking quietly about...
Simplicity at Colombey...
...Colombey, De Gaulle's request for an "extremely simple" service was followed to the letter. Carpenter Louis Merger, 59, said that Madame de Gaulle "asked for the same kind of casket I make for everybody else. When I asked if she didn't want something military, she said 'Non.' " Pointing to the extra-length (6 ft. 11 in.) oak coffin, lined with white quilt and trimmed with an aluminum cross, Merger added: "He was right. Who would need anything more?" Total cost: $72, or $9 more than usual, because of the size...
...around Colombey were thousands of cars, parked along roads and in fields. Nine special trains brought other mourners. All together, some 40,000 men and womenmany of them carrying blankets and picnic basketsconverged on the small square outside Notre Dame de Colombey. The crowd was packed so tightly that those who fainted had to be passed overhead toward first-aid stations...