Approximately 150 people attended a private ceremony on Saturday, June 21, at Bel Air Presbyterian Church to honor and remember the radio icon. Among the attendees was Casey's Children - Kerri Kasem, Mike Kasem and Julie Kasem - but not his wife or her daughter, according to The Wrap,
Things are still tense between the late Casey Kasem's children and his wife, Jean. For the past eight months there has been a nasty battle between Jean and her step-children regarding Casey's medical care leading up to his death on June 15, Father's Day.
According to The Wrap, around 150 people attended a private ceremony on Saturday, June 21 at Bel Air Presbyterian Church to honor and remember the radio icon. Among the attendees was Casey's Children - Kerri Kasem, Mike Kasem and Julie Kasem - but not his wife or her daughter.
"The children - Kerri, Mike, Julie and Julie's daughters - gave speeches in addition to his close friends and brother," family spokesman Danny Deraney told The Wrap.
Deraney confirmed that several of Casey's former radio colleagues paid their respects but his wife Jean, and her daughter with Casey, did not attend the memorial service. Casey, who also voiced Shaggy on "Scooby Doo," died six days ago at a Washington hospice center at the age of 82.
According to reports, he suffered from Lewy body disease, which is a form of dementia that left him unable to speak, move, or eat on his own. Jean and her step-children were constantly fighting over how the ailing radio legend should have lived out his final days.
Jean wanted Casey to remain on life support, while Casey's daughter Kerri and her brother and sister made the difficult decision to transition him back to comfort-oriented, end-of-life care at a hospice facility.
According to Reuters, the children decided to remove life support and withhold water, medication and food. Kerri's attorney told Reuters the children's decision was made after doctors informed them that water was beginning to flood Casey's lungs and food was putting him at risk of getting pneumonia.
Jean and her attorney wanted to fight the decision and felt like the radio personality was being "starved and cut off from medicine until he dies."
Casey's daughter Julie told People magazine that the family didn't want to focus on the drama at the memorial but added that, "To have all of his family, friends and coworkers come together to remember and pay tribute to him was beautiful."
