Desert Residents Pay Tribute To Elizabeth Taylor
Flowers surrounded Elizabeth Taylor’s star on N. Palm Canyon Dr. in Palm Springs Wednesday.
Her death saddened fans here in the valley. “When you hear ‘Elizabeth Taylor,’ you think of all the great motion pictures that have come,” Monte George, of Palm Springs, said. “In my eye, there’ll never be another actress like her.”
Kitty Kelley, who wrote the book on Taylor, told News Channel 3 in an exclusive interview that we will never see a life like Taylor’s again.
“She had such a life. It’s sad that she’s gone, but at least we’re not grieving for a life ill-lived,” Kelley said. “She lived [life] to its hilt.”
Kelley said Taylor’s star also shined brightly off the screen.
“She stood forward during the Reagan administration after the death of Rock Hudson to back AIDS research at a time when the president of the United States didn’t even mention the word ‘AIDS.'”
Desert resident Carol Channing adored Taylor. They met in New York when Channing starred in “Hello, Dolly” on Broadway. Taylor’s husband at the time, Richard Burton, played “Hamlet” across the street.
“We went to a place that had dancing and a wonderful orchestra. She handed him to me and said, ‘Richard, why don’t you dance with Carol?'” said Channing. “Well, that was a thrill for me.”
Taylor and her third husband, movie producer Mike Todd, leased a Palm Springs estate in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood.
The Palm Springs Art Museum owns a 1957 picture of the couple taken at the Racquet Club.
According to Kitty Kelley, even though Taylor married Richard Burton twice, Taylor’s true love was Mike Todd.
“He was such an exuberant man,” Kelley said. “He was the first flamboyant man that ever came into her life. He was bigger than life.”
Channing and Taylor lost touch years ago. But, she remembered Taylor as genuine. If there was something Taylor taught her, it was love.
“She said, ‘If you love somebody once — no matter how far back in your memory — you always love him,'” Channing said.
Taylor was 79. She is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and many friends and fans.
