Following the Aug. 8 death of Academy Award winning actress Patricia Neal, friends and family will gather tomorrow for a burial service in Bethlehem, Conn. Neal died at her Martha's Vineyard, Mass. home following a lengthy battle with lung cancer.
Best known for starring roles in noted films such as Hud, Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Neal, 86, also served as an outspoken proponent of the pro-life movement following her own abortion.
In her autobiography, "As I Am," Neal disclosed details of an affair with The Fountainhead co-star Gary Cooper. She was a 21-year-old starlet, he a 46-year-old married man. Upon news of an unexpected pregnancy, Cooper insisted Neal have an abortion. She did so and, despite a number of other personal tragedies (among them an accident resulting in the brain damage of her son, the death of her 9-year-old daughter, and her own three brain aneurysms), Neal later referred to her abortion as the biggest sorrow of her life. “If I had only one thing to do over in my life,” she wrote, “I would have that baby.”
Neal went on to channel her regret into positive activism for women dealing with crisis pregnancies. She publicly supported fellow actress Ingrid Bergman in 1950, when she gave birth to a child out of wedlock despite Hollywood's raised eyebrows. As Neal told PEOPLE magazine, she wished she had exhibited Bergman's bravery instead of succumbing to pressure to hide her pregnancy by turning to abortion.
Members of the pro-life community are paying special tribute to Neal this week. Janet Morana, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign suggested Neal's message will endure, helping "others to realize that abortion is not solving women’s problems. It is creating many others.”
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