A small, private service for the former teacher was attended by three of the early "60s starlet's children. November 19, 2000|By MIKE FRASSINELLI Of The Morning Call

The casket was lowered five feet. Six feet under is "a myth," one of the two grave diggers stressed.

The conversation switched to the actress whose remains were under the next tombstone, marble and in the shape of a giant heart.

"As far as I'm concerned, she was better-looking than Marilyn Monroe," Nik Krause said, eyeing the stone of blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield.

"She never quite got the credit that Marilyn Monroe did, but this was a good-looking lady."

"Yes, she was," agreed Charlie Bogart. "She really was."

They prepared to put a lid on the vault in the grave site next to Mansfield's.

Mansfield was buried in Fairview Cemetery 33 years ago, the year before Krause was born. At her funeral, the burial ground in Plainfield Township was besieged by throngs of people, some trying to take plots of grass. The line of people stretched from the cemetery to the center of Pen Argyl.

Perhaps that's why the family wanted a low-key funeral and burial Saturday for Mansfield's mother, Vera Peers, who died Nov. 10 at age 97.

The family requested that no reporters be allowed inside Guerro and Ruggiero Funeral Home while 40 people said goodbye to the energetic Pen Argyl schoolteacher whose daughter achieved worldwide fame.

The funeral and burial included an appearance by the three children Mansfield had with Mr. Universe/actor Mickey Hargitay. All three children survived the car crash in New Orleans in 1967 that killed Mansfield at age 34.

Marilyn Monroe, the actress Mansfield often was compared to, died in 1962 at age 36.

Mansfield had five children and was married three times. Controversy even surrounded her crash, as word spread incorrectly that she was decapitated. Her wig flew off.

On Saturday, the mother who lived to be 97 was buried next to the daughter who shoehorned 97 years worth of excitement into 34.

One of Mansfield's children, Mariska Hargitay, now 36, has gone on to become the star of "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," known by fans simply as "SVU."

She arrived on time Saturday in a black Mercedes sport utility vehicle, the SVU star in the SUV. The skirt and sweater also were black, accented by a pink shawl.

No one in the street seemed to notice. A half-dozen cars stopped in front of the funeral home, but it was to ask a fire policeman for directions for the big playoff football game at Pen Argyl High School.

Inside, the Rev. Larry Mark spoke of Peers' upbringing on Schanck Street in Pen Argyl, where Peers' sister, Helen Milheim, continues to live.

Peers had a tremendous talent for allocution -- formal speech -- contests, said Mark, pastor of Pen Argyl's Grace United Methodist Church.

Some of Peers' former pupils visited Steve Ruggiero's funeral home on E. Pennsylvania Avenue Saturday.

Peers' first husband and Mansfield's father, Herbert Palmer, died of a heart attack when Mansfield, born Vera Jayne Palmer, was 3. Peers later married Harry Peers, who died in 1997 and was buried next to the grave sites of Vera Peers and Mansfield.

Peers converted tragedies in her life into "a great deal of strength, which she has passed on to the grandkids," Mark said.

She enjoyed "earthly mansions" such as Mansfield's estate with a heart-shaped pool, but will now enjoy the "father's mansion in heaven," the pastor said.

"She was a people person," the minister continued. "She lived to 97 and her mind was keen to the end, and she was loved by so many people."

Outside, flurries began.

Vera Peers was born in Pen Argyl, but went on to live in Texas, Colorado and California, where she died.

A procession of 10 cars went to Fairview Cemetery.

Krause and Bogart waited in a corner until the family departed.

Krause was asked if he knew the name Vera Peers.

"It's Jayne Mansfield's mother," he said without hesitation. "I like her [Mansfield's] old movies."

The black Mercedes SUV returned.

Krause and Bogart respectfully stopped what they were doing.

A man placed two bouquets on his mother's grave.

"Love you, Mom," he said.

Krause, a third-generation grave worker from Nazareth -- "My dad goes by cemetery services technician, he likes that, but we're grave diggers," he said with a smile -- has a hand in digging between 425 and 600 graves a year.

It's hard to miss the Mansfield stone, even without the dozen roses Mickey Hargitay used to send to be placed on it.

"A lot of times when we are working here, people will ask where the stone is," Krause said. "There was a couple here earlier in the week who were up here taking pictures of the stone. They were from Jersey."

Reporter Mike Frassinelli

610-820-6595

mike.frassinelli@mcall.com

Vera J Peers