good friends, were grand marshals at the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade. Charitable work During the last year of her life, Montgomery was a volunteer at the Los Angeles Unit of Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization which records educational books on specially formatted CDs as well as in downloadable formats for disabled people. In 1994, Montgomery produced several radio and television public-service announcements for Learning Ally's Los Angeles unit. In January 1995, she recorded the 1952 edition of the best-selling book of poetry titled When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne for Learning Ally. On June 3, 1995, sixteen days after her death, Learning Ally's Los Angeles unit dedicated its 1995 Record-A-Thon to Montgomery and it also secured 21 celebrities to assist in the recording of the book titled Chicken Soup for the Soul, which was also dedicated to her memory. Illness and death For several months before her death, Montgomery had struggled with cancer. She had ignored the influenza-like symptoms during the filming of Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan, which she finished filming in late March 1995. By the time the cancer was diagnosed, it had spread from her colon to her liver, so it was too late for medical intervention. With no hope of recovery and unwilling to die in a hospital, she chose to return to the Beverly Hills home that she shared with Foxworth. At 8:22 a.m. Pacific time on the morning of May 18, 1995, Montgomery died in her sleep at home, eight weeks after her diagnosis and 33 days after her birthday; she was 62 years old. On June 18, 1995, exactly one month after her death, a memorial service was held at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills. Herbie Hancock played music, and Dominick Dunne spoke about the early years of their friendship when both of them lived in New York City. Other speakers included her widower, Robert Foxworth, who read sympathy cards which were sent to him by fans, her nurse, her brother, her daughter, and her stepson. Her body was cremated at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Montgomery kept her parents' home in Patterson, Putnam County, New York. After her death, the estate was sold and then it became a part of Wonder Lake State Park. Legacy On April 19, 1998, Montgomery's family held an auction and a sale of her clothing in order