Casey Kasem to be buried in Norway
Casey Kasem will be buried in Norway, according to a Reuters report quoting a spokesperson for one of the late radio personality's daughters.
Kasem was the host of the "American Top 40" syndicated radio show and also was the voice of the character of Shaggy for the cartoon "Scooby Doo." He was 82 when he died June 15 after a judge ruled that daughter Kerri could allow drugs, food and liquids to be withheld from her father. His widow, Jean Kasem, his second wife, and Kerri Kasem and his other children from his previous marriage had fought a legal battle over his care and wishes in the last months of his life.
Casey Kasem and his wife lived in California, but she took him to Washington state in June for treatment of his reported illnesses, among them Parkinson's disease and Lewy Body Dementia. Kerri Kasem told a court that her father also had sepsis, bed sores and lung and bladder infections.
After Casey Kasem died, Jean Kasem moved his body from a U.S. funeral home to Canada before a U.S. court issued an order for an autopsy to be performed. It is Jean Kasem's desire that her late husband be buried in Norway, according to the media report.
“My Dad, my brother, my sister and myself ALL believe that YOU are not the body. In other words, you are a spirit/soul inhabiting a body so when my Dad died he left his body. You can't take your body to Heaven with you!” Kerri Kasem wrote on her Facebook page July 25. “We got to spend the last 15 days of my father's life with him and THAT is what mattered. Do I wish that Jean would bury him here at [Los Angeles cemetery] Forest Lawn? YES, but we fought the good fight and WON that fight. This is not my fight.”
To prevent others from experiencing what she did, Kerri Kasem is lobbying for the passage of legislation in California that would require conservators/guardians to notify immediate family members when an ailing person is in the hospital, has died and is buried.
Casey Kasem during 14th Annual Night of 100 Stars Oscar Gala in 2004 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Victor Spinelli/WireImage)
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