University of Virginia Library

DeGaulle To Be Laid To Rest
In 'Peasant' Rites Tomorrow

COLOMEY-LES-DEUX-EGLISE —
General Charles DeGaulle, who devoted
his life to restoring the glory of France,
was laid out Tuesday in his military
uniform in the parlor of his country
home, where he died of a heart attack
Monday night while playing solitaire.

Gen. DeGaulle, who would have been
80 on Nov. 22, left precise written
instructions that he wanted his funeral to
be "extremely simple" with "no music,
no fanfare, no bell-ringing, no speech,
neither in the church nor elsewhere."

Father Claude-Jaughey, the village
priest who administered the last rites
Monday night, said "the general will
receive a plain funeral, like any other
villager, or a lumberjack. This will be a
classless funeral as the general always
wished."

But the government set a parallel
memorial ceremony in majestic Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris and the great of
the world announced they would attend.

President Nixon

President Nixon, whose country was
frequently defied and criticized by Gen.
DeGaulle while he served as French president
and leader of Free French forces in World War
II, announced he would go to Paris for the
ceremony. He hailed Gen. DeGaulle as "a
personal friend and man of great stature."

Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin also will
attend the Paris rites. French government
sources said that the White House made clear
Mr. Nixon would not use the occasion for talks
with Mr. Kosygin or other world leaders.

"General DeGaulle is dead, France is a
widow," said President Georges Pompidou in a
special telecast notifying the nation of the
passing of the man who served twice as
President, twice as Premier,, and who was the
last survivor of the great Allied leaders of World
War II. He had outlived Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill. Only
Chiang Kai-shek survives.

The government decreed Nov. 12 as a day of
national mourning for DeGaulle who had lived
in self-imposed isolation in this village in
eastern France after the French voters had
turned him down in a special referendum in
April, 1969.

Wildflowers

In Colombey, a village of 394 inhabitants,
villagers and farmers paid homage Tuesday by
trekking to the little churchyard to lay
bouquets of wildflowers and rosaries on the
grave of Gen. DeGaulle's favorite daughter,
Anne, who died in 1948 at the age of 20.

Gen. DeGaulle himself will be buried beside
his daughter in the same family plot Thursday.

The body of Gen. DeGaulle, dressed in his
brigadier general's uniform was laid out in the
salon of his home, called "La Boisserie," which
was his favorite retreat from the power politics
of the world.

Solitaire

Gen. DeGaulle's son-in-law, Gen. Alain de
Bossieu, told newsmen Tuesday the former
president suffered a heart attack as he was
dealing himself cards for a game of solitaire.

The president had spent his last day on the
third chapter of the fifth volume of a six
volume set of memoirs he had planned and
was waiting for the evening news to begin on
the state-run television network.

Mr. De Bossieu said Mr. DeGaulle died at
7:30 p.m. But Frenchmen did not hear about it
until Tuesday morning when Mr. Pompidou
took to the television.

According to official French sources. Gen.
DeGaulle's death was not reported to Paris until
4 a.m. Tuesday morning, when his son-in-law
telephoned the news to President Pompidou.