What Was Buried in Frank Sinatra’s Coffin?
Everyone knows Frank Sinatra, aka “Ol’ Blue Eyes,” regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century, had a penchant for whiskey. But did you know he was also buried with a bottle of it? Yes, the “My Way” singer was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey that his daughter Nancy slipped inside his coffin. Also included in his coffin was a pack of Camel cigarettes with a Zippo lighter (placed there by Frank Jr.), Tootsie Rolls, cherry Life Savors, stuffed animals, and a dog biscuit. Lastly, a dollar’s worth of dimes was added by daughter Tina.
Why the dimes? Rumor has it that after his son Frank Jr. was kidnapped, the kidnappers would only talk on pay phones to collect the ransom, so he always wanted to be sure he had change on him. “I think it came from Frankie’s kidnapping, maybe before,” Tina Sinatra shared on Larry King Live. “He never wanted to get caught not able to make a phone call. He always carried 10 dimes.”
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Sinatra died on May 14, 1998, when he was 82 years old. He was buried in a blue suit with a red and blue tie and a pink shirt. The Who’s Who of the entertainment industry was at his funeral, from Gregory Peck, Tony Bennett and Don Rickles to Liza Minnelli and Debbie Reynolds. His declining health over the years prior was likely due to his love of whiskey and cigarettes, so it’s a bit ironic he was buried with the addictions that would likely accelerate his death by heart attack.
If that’s not odd enough, there’s more.
A family feud that would continue literally beyond the grave
In 1998, Sinatra was also buried beneath a headstone that read “The Best Is Yet to Come” above his name and “Beloved Husband & Father” below it. But in 2020, a new headstone had mysteriously replaced the one that had been there for more than two decades. Why? Well, “officially,” nobody knows.
Public Domain
However, it seems pretty clear that it had to with some old family drama. Sinatra’s two daughters with Nancy Barbato quite famously had a Cinderella-esque feud with Sinatra’s fourth and final wife, Barbara Marx, who died in 2017 and is buried right next to him. One anonymous source claims that the original headstone was damaged where the word “husband” is engraved, so it had to be replaced. The new headstone says instead, “Sleep Warm, Poppa.” The same phrase was written on a note also buried in the pocket of Sinatra’s pants, according to the memoir by his daughter, Tina Sinatra, who placed it there. Tina wrote at length in her memoir about her father’s “disastrous” marriage to her stepmother Barbara; whereas Barbara didn’t mention Tina or her sister in her memoir at all, which says something in and of itself. (So many memoirs!)
I happened to be at Frank Sinatra’s grave in Cathedral City today—and his original gravestone is missing.
This is what it should look like (“The best is yet to come”) vs. what’s there now (“Sleep warm, poppa.”) pic.twitter.com/EcyWrsb7bI
— Jason Cochran (@JasCochran) December 31, 2021
The whole story, gauche as it is, reminds me of my time working in the monument business, where people often took advantage of a headstone to have the last word. One headstone order I oversaw by someone’s widower had the engraving “I told you I was sick.” (Whether or not the woman who died or her husband requested that line of remembrance, I do not recall, as this was over a decade ago; but either way, it’s a sentence that really sticks with you.)
Then again, it’s only a headstone. And a gravesite is meant for the living, so why not let his children have the last word?
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November 2020
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