THAT DAY

On July 7, 1971 around 9 a.m., a small procession made up of 5 people progressed through the alleys of the 6th division of the Parisian cemetery of Père Lachaise. They are Pamela Courson (Companion of the Singer), Bill Siddons (Manager of the Doors), Robin Wertle (Secretary of Jim in Paris), Alain Ronay and Agnès Varda (Filmmakers and friends of the Morrison-Courson couple).

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All are there to bury "Douglas, James Morrison", Poet. An American, who died a few days earlier in an apartment located in the 4th arrondissement. Jim is actually buried under this name in order to keep the press away, few people know that this is the singer of the Doors, once a sex symbol and self-proclaimed "King Lezard".

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The ceremony will only last a total of 10 short minutes, the place even being devoid of burial (we are talking about a delay in delivery).

Pamela will place a bouquet of flowers on the floor and read a few lines from a poem by Jim:

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"Now the night is coming with its crimson legions

Retreat now to your tents and your dreams

Tomorrow we enter the city of my birth

I want to be ready."

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Initially, however, the idea was to bury Jim in a country cemetery in the province. Unable to do so, the idea of Père Lachaise was suggested to Pamela. Naively, the latter answered "Is that where Rimbaud is buried?" before validating the idea...

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Jim, who had visited the place and is said to have passed by the grave of Oscar Wilde, is said to have said that he would like to rest there when he died.

In the 1990s, Vice-Admiral and Jim's father, George S. Morrison, sorry for not having been present enough for his son, settled the payment for a new stele bearing the Greek inscription:

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"ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ" (True to one's own fate.)

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(The photo below is from July 9, 1971.)