Coleman's Estranged Parents to Attend Weekend Funeral

After being shut out from Gary Coleman’s life for more than a decade, parents Sue and Willie Coleman will have a chance to say their goodbyes this weekend.

Coleman’s family will hold a memorial service in Salt Lake City either Friday, Saturday or Sunday with his parents expected to attend, reps for the late ex-child star told entertainment news outlets on Tuesday.

While the family has not decided whether the service will be private or open to the public, the funeral will likely be held at Lake Hills Mortuary, Coleman’s lawyer, Randy Kester, told Usmagazine.com.

“It's been kind of hard" for Sue Coleman, Kester added. "There are a lot of emotions surrounding all of it."

Coleman, 42, died Friday after being taken off life-support following a brain hemorrhage. Hospitial officials have said the official cause of death is under investigation and they are withholding further details at the request of Coleman’s widow, Shannon Price.

Last week, Sue and Larry Coleman revealed they hadn’t spoken to their son in more than 10 years, and lashed out at Price and hospital officials for keeping them in the dark with details of their son’s sudden death.

"We're not pointing fingers at anyone, but we need to know exactly what happened," Sue Coleman, 67, told People. "We're not angry. We're just concerned. Did our son fall down the stairs? Did he fall in the bathtub? We need to have some closure on our son's life."

In 1989, Coleman was awarded $1.3 million from a lawsuit that accused his parents and his business manager of swindling him out of some of his acting fortune. His parents have maintained their innocence and said they always hoped to reconcile.

“After we stopped hearing from him, we reached out to him anyway we could,” Sue Coleman told People. “Over the years, we sent him birthday and Christmas wishes through his agents and managers because we often had no phone number, no address to reach him. But we always hoped someday he'd come around.”
 

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