the end of January 1951 Meštrović joined the American campaign for the release of Archbishop Stepinac from prison. Later years Before he died, Meštrović returned to Yugoslavia one last time to visit with the imprisoned Cardinal Stepinac and with Tito. At the request of various people from his homeland he sent 59 statues from the United States to Yugoslavia (including the monument of Petar Petrovic-Njegos), and in 1952 signed off his Croatian estates to the people of Croatia,<ref>Ivan Meštrović Museums: The History of the Institution: "In 1952, a contract of donation was concluded between Ivan Meštrović and the People's Republic of Croatia, by means of which Ivan Meštrović donated to the people of Croatia his family house and atelier in Zagreb (later adapted into an exhibition space - the Meštrović Atelier), the family villa with ateliers in Split (which later became the Ivan Meštrović Gallery), the sacral and art complex Kaštelet-Crikvine in Split, and the Meštrović family vault - The Most Holy Redeemer Church near Otavice. The donation also included several Meštrović's works of art, today the bases of the museum holdings of the mentioned institutions."</ref> including more than 400 sculptures and numerous drawings. Upon his return he vowed to his colleague painter Jozo Kljaković that he would not return to the country as long as the communists were in power. Two of his children predeceased him. His daughter Marta, who moved with him to the U.S., died in 1949 at the age of 24. His son Tvrtko, who remained in Zagreb, was 39 when he died in 1961. In 1960 he suffered a minor stroke which affected his eyesight. In 1961, his memoir, Uspomene na političke ljude i događaje (Reminiscences of Political People and Events), was published by the Croatian emigrant publishing house Hrvatska revija (Croatian Review) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1969, they were published by Matica hrvatska in Zagreb. After creating four clay sculptures to memorialize his children, Meštrović died in early 1962, aged 79, in South Bend, Indiana. His funeral mass was celebrated by the bishops of Šibenik, Josip Arnerić, and bishop of Split-Makarska Frane Franić. His remains were interred at a mausoleum in his childhood home of Otavice. Communist Yugoslav authorities had originally promised the Meštrović family that his remains could lie in repose at the cathedrals in Zagreb and Split. Once his remains had arrived in Yugoslavia, however, the authorities reneged and did not