Advertisement

Memorial services for historian and author Will Durant, who...

LOS ANGELES -- Memorial services for historian and author Will Durant, who died Saturday at the age of 96, were scheduled for Friday at Westwood Memorial Park, a family spokesman said Tuesday.

Durant's death followed by 13 days that of his wife, Ariel, but he was never told that she died.

Advertisement

Durant, co-author with his wife of the 11-volume 'Story of Civilization,' is to be cremated prior to the service.

Mrs. Durant died Oct. 25 at age 83 and left the bulk of her $425,000 estate to her husband.

The 1977 will filed for probate Monday in Superior Court specified, however, that the gifts go to their daughter, Ethel Benvenuta Durant, if her husband failed to outlive her by four months.

Mrs. Durant bequeathed her manuscripts to the Will and Ariel Durant Foundation in a codicil dated Aug. 9, 1978. If the gift cannot be made without payment of inheritance taxes, she ordered that it go to the University of Southern California.

She left half her remaining estate, including copyrights and royalties, to her daughter, one-fourth to her grandson, William James Durant Easton, and one-fourth to her granddaughter, Monica Ariel Mihell.

Advertisement

The 10th volume in the civilization series, 'Rousseau and the Revolution,' earned the couple a Pulitzer Prize for History in 1968.

She also left a cash gift of $100,000 to her daughter, but her total bequest to the couple's adopted son, Louis R. Durant of Sarasota, Fla., was $10,000.

Daughter Ethel, as substitute for her father, will serve as co-executor with Security Pacific Bank, and will receive her mother's Hollywood home, jewelry and personal possessions.

Latest Headlines