At private funeral, Davy Jones remembered for "a blissful lightness of being"
(CBS News) Davy Jones, one-time teen heartthrob and The Monkees singer, was remembered Wednesday at a private funeral service at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Indiantown, near his home in Florida
Immediate family including his wife and daughters attended the service, publicist Helen Kensick said. Jones' body was to be cremated and his ashes returned to his birthplace in Manchester, England, she said.
Pictures: Davy Jones
Read More: Surviving Monkees pay tribute
The Rev. Frank O'Loughlin, who presided over the service, said several of Jones' own songs were played, including "I'll Love You Forever" and "Written in My Heart." In his own remarks to mourners, the priest compared the singer to the diminutive hero of "Lord of the Rings," saying the author J.R.R. Tolkien portrayed a world not unlike the one Jones offered fans.
"He wrote about a quiet, gentle, contented people," O'Loughlin said in his sermon, a copy of which he shared with The Associated Press. "A people for whom life was bright, neighbors friends, daydream believers with an absolute absence of burden who took themselves lightly lighter than air. Wasn't that what David conveyed to the world, a blissful lightness of being?"
O'Loughlin said Jones' widow, Jessica Pacheco, brought her husband's cremains to the church and her brother Joseph Pacheco, the singer's manager, gave a eulogy.
Besides family, the man who first trained Jones to ride racehorses was in attendance, as were members of his current band, who wrote prayers they read at the service.
No surviving members of The Monkees, a made-for-TV band that scored musical and TV success in the 1960s, attended the service.
Jones died suddenly after suffering a heart attack in Florida last week at the age of 66.
A public memorial service will be held next week in Manchester, where Jones grew up, while another public service is yet to be confirmed but may be held in either Los Angeles or New York, Kensick said.
It is possible that Jones' Monkees bandmates - Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith - will perform at one of the public memorial services.
According to Reuters, Jones was stricken while attending to horses he kept in Indiantown, Fla., about halfway between the Atlantic coast and Lake Okeechobee.
The father of four daughters, Jones lived with his third wife, Jessica Pacheco-Jones, in Hollywood, Fla.
Jones' four daughters Talia Jones, Sarah McFadden, Jessica Cramer and Annabel Jones released a joint statement Thursday thanking fans for the response to their father's death.
"Our family has been greatly comforted by the support and love of everyone who has reached out to us," they said. "Knowing that so many people around the world were so affected by our dad's life and music makes us feel connected to you all."
