Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood, California home by her live-in housekeeper Eunice Murray on August 5, 1962. She was 36 years old at the time of her death. Her death was ruled to be "acute barbiturate poisoning" by Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office and listed as "probable suicide," but because of a lack of evidence, her death was not classified as “suicide”.

Marilyn Monroe's funeral took place at 1:00pm on August 8, 1962, at the Westwood Village Mortuary Chapel on the grounds of the Westwood Memorial Cemetery. It was a very private service conducted by Reverend A. J. Soldan, a Lutheran minister from the Village Church of Westwood. Readings were made of Psalm 23, chapter 14 of the Book of John, and excerpts from Pslams 46 adn 139. The Lord's Prayer was also read. The somber occasion began with the stains of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, and included, at Marilyn's request, Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow". Lee Strasber delivered the eulogy.

During the service Marilyn's body lay in an open bronze casket lined with champagne-colored satin. Partially exposed, she was dressed in her green Pucci dress and a green chiffon scarf. For the last time, Allan "Whitey" Snyder did her makeup, a flask of gin fortifying him enough to carry out a promise he had made in jest many years earlier, and of which Marilyn had reminded him with an inscription on a gold money clip she gave him, saying, "Whitey Dear, While I'm still warm, Marilyn."

Because of the damage done by the autopsy, Agnes Flanagan, who prepared her hair that day, had to use a wig similar to how Marilyn had been wearing her hair in her aborted last picture, "Something's Got to Give". In her hands was a posy of pink teacup roses, a gift from DiMaggio, who had sat in vigil the night before.

Monroe is interred in a pink marble crypt at Corridor of Memories, #24 at Westwood Memorial park. Monroe had visited the cemetery more than once as a struggling actress because Ana Lower, the adult to whom she had been closest during her juvenile years, had been buried there in 1948.