Marks funeral Mass on Monday
Jimmy Marks will make one last visit to Spokane City Hall.
The funeral procession for the 62-year-old Gypsy leader will stop briefly in front of City Hall on Monday morning, en route to a north Spokane church and entombment at Holy Cross Cemetery, his brother Bobby Marks said Friday.
“He would have wanted it that way,” Bobby Marks said of his late brother.
Jimmy Marks became the scourge of City Hall after 1986 police raids on Marks family homes and an 11-year civil rights legal battle ended with a $1.4 million settlement from the city.
The self-proclaimed Gypsy senator died Wednesday at Sacred Heart Medical Center after suffering a massive heart attack in a dentist chair on June 22.
A wake for the colorful and outspoken cultural leader began Friday afternoon at Hazen & Jaeger Funeral Home, 1306 N. Pines, in Spokane Valley.
Funeral services for his late parents, Grover and Lipe Marks, also were held at that funeral home, while members of the Rom community celebrated their lives with food and drink in the parking lot and adjoining grassy area.
A similar, traditional cultural gathering will be held for Jimmy Marks. He is survived by his wife, Jane, and their four children, two brothers and four sisters.
A public viewing and visitation began Friday afternoon after a private ceremony for immediate family and friends.
Visitation continues 10 a.m. to midnight today and Sunday, and the public and his friends are welcome to pay their respects, Bobby Marks said.
At 6:30 this evening, a group of Catholic nuns – former members of The Singing Nuns who now call themselves “Sisters of Mary” – is scheduled to sing “Ave Maria” in the chapel.
“They just met Jimmy a couple of weeks ago at the car auction in Coeur d’Alene and wanted to do something for him,” said Russell Jones, a Spokane attorney and long-time family friend.
At 11 a.m. Monday, his casket will be escorted from the funeral home chapel to a waiting hearse, while a five-member mariachi band plays music.
The funeral motorcade will drive from the funeral home past Jimmy Marks’ home on South Thor before traveling past City Hall at 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., Bobby Marks said.
From there, the procession will travel to St. Charles Roman Catholic Church, 4515 N. Atlantic, where a Mass of Christian burial will be conducted.
After the service, the procession will go to Holy Cross Cemetery, 7200 N. Wall, where the late Gypsy leader will be temporarily entombed at the private mausoleum holding the bodies of his parents.
Eventually, plans call for building a separate private mausoleum for Jimmy Marks, his brother said.