Ivana Trump’s funeral was an elaborate affair with a coffin that had a golden hue.
The ex-wife of former President Donald J. Trump’s funeral was organized by the Trump Organisation with the Secret Service in attendance.
The funeral was held on July 20 and attended by Donald Trump, his wife Melania and their three children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr who were all seated in the front row.
Outside the St Vincent Ferrer church where the funeral was held, photographers and the public looked in with curiousity.
Ivana Trump died in her apartment in New York last week, she was 73 years old. She was widowed when she married Donald Trump and following her divorce to him married twice but both her husbands passed away before her.
In his speech her son Eric said of his mother,
“She had brains, she had beauty and she had grit winning the hearts and minds of every single person in the U.S and on the Home Shopping Network and QVC. She still holds every single sales record. People adored Ivana.” Commenting on her parenting style he said that as a parent she “ruled with an iron fist and a heart of gold.”
Her daughter Ivanka, 40 said that her mother hated funerals and started crying as she talked about how her mother was a “trailblazer, admired by men and women alike” for her “grace and her beauty,” but also her business prowess and relentless work ethic.”
“She was also the sort of mother who teased her daughter for leaving a party in St.-Tropez at 1 a.m. (“She had stayed till 4”) and chided her for wearing clothes that were too modest. “My miniskirts weren’t mini enough, Ivana’s motto, was flaunt them while you’ve got them,” said her daughter.
“She taught me to study hard, to work hard, to comport myself with dignity and good manners and to never, ever marry a man with a bad back. It took me years to understand the last one,” said Ivanka.
Guests at the funeral were somewhat nondescript except for a few notable people such as Paolo Zampolli, the former modeling agent whom Mr. Trump appointed to the board of trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Dennis Basso, the fashion designer whose furs Ivana favoured, Couri Hay, the publicist and gossip columnist and Jeanine Pirro, the right wing television opinion host.
According to a designer she favoured, Marc Bouwer, Ivana had been living a solitary life in her final years.
“She had been isolated. There was a lot of pain, a lot of sadness,” he said.
According to other interviews, Ivana had the same hunger for attention as her ex-husband and when her celebrity status faded over the years and his blossomed with the television show The Apprentice and later on as president, she had felt left out.
Pallbearers carried the coffin accompanied by a recessional by Christopher Macchio. She was laid to rest at her ex-husband’s golf course in Bedminster N.J where the ground had been consecrated so Ms Trump could have a traditional Catholic burial.