Lee Strasberg delivered the eulogy at her funeral, from which Joe DiMaggio barred her Hollywood “friends”:

“We knew her as a warm human being, impulsive and shy, sensitive and in fear of rejection, yet ever avid for life and reaching out for fulfillment.... In her own lifetime she created a myth of what a poor girl from a deprived background could obtain. For the entire world she became a symbol of the eternal feminine. For us, Marilyn was a devoted and loyal friend, a colleague constantly reaching for perfection... it is difficult to accept the fact that her zest for life has been ended by this dreadful accident. I am truly sorry that the public who loved her did not have the opportunity to see her as we did, in many of the roles that foreshadowed what she would have become. Without doubt, she would have been one of the really great actresses of the stage.

“Now it is all at an end. I hope that her death will stir sympathy and understanding for a sensitive artist and woman who brought joy and pleasure to the world.”