Mantle Service To Pack Church Espn2, Cnn To Have Live Coverage Of Funeral Today

Lovers Lane United Methodist Church staff, overwhelmed Monday by phone calls from across the nation, expect to fall thousands of seats short of accommodating everyone who wants to attend Mickey Mantle’s funeral today.

“Our switchboard has been lighted up since 7:30 this morning,” said the Rev. Dudley Dancer, the church’s minister of pastoral care.

Public services for the former New York Yankees star begin at 2 p.m. The church will provide seating for 1,425 and have loudspeakers on the grounds for the thousands unable to get inside, church officials said.

Two Dallas television stations, KXTX-TV and KDFW-TV will broadcast the services live, as will the CNN and ESPN2 cable networks.

Mantle, 63, died early Sunday at Baylor University Medical Center of what doctors described as an extremely aggressive form of cancer that spread from his liver to a lung and ultimately to other organs.

He had checked into Baylor on May 28, complaining of stomach pain. Doctors found his liver racked by cancer, years of heavy drinking and a hepatitis C infection. He received a liver transplant June 8 and left the hospital 20 days later. By Aug. 7, however, doctors discovered the cancer had spread to so many organs it could no longer be fought.

Mantle supported Promise House, a program for runaways and homeless youth at Lovers Lane.

The Rev. William Jennings Bryan III, Lovers Lane’s senior pastor, will officiate the services, with the Rev. Bobby Richardson, a former Yankees teammate of Mantle’s, delivering the sermon. NBC sportscaster Bob Costas will give the eulogy, and country music’s Roy Clark will sing.

Dancer said Mantle’s family will arrive at 2 p.m. and has asked that the interment be private. The service, “a thanksgiving and celebration of Mickey’s life,” is expected to last 45 minutes, Dancer said.

There will be no funeral procession to Sparkman-Hillcrest Funeral Home on Northwest Highway. In a private ceremony there, Mantle will be placed in a family crypt area near his son, Billy, who died in March 1994 of a heart attack at age 36.

Pallbearers will be former Yankees teammates Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Bill “Moose” Skowron, Hank Bauer, John Blanchard and Bobby Murcer.

Mantle is survived by his wife, Merlyn Mantle; three sons, Mickey Mantle Jr., David Mantle and Danny Mantle, all of Dallas; four brothers, Theodore Davis, Roy Mantle, Ray Mantle and Larry Mantle; a sister, Barbara Mantle; and two grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to the Mickey Mantle Foundation, 8080 N. Central Expressway, Suite 800, Dallas, Texas 75206-1887. The foundation was created to increase awareness of the need for organ donation.