Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were laid to rest in a private funeral on Friday just under two weeks after they died with seven others in a helicopter crash in Southern California on Jan. 26. According to death certificates released on Tuesday by Los Angeles County officials, the father and daughter were buried at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar, California.
No details were released about a graveside service. CNN reports that the Bryants are Catholic, and the cemetery is less than a 10-minute drive from their church, Our Lady Queen of Angels, in Newport Beach. It is also about two miles from the Pacific Ocean.
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Pacific View’s website shares that the cemetery’s “gently rolling slopes of green, lush landscaping filled with palms and flowers are meticulously cared for and offer a breathtaking final resting place for your loved one, as well as a place of peaceful reflection and remembering for you.”
On Feb. 24, Bryant and Gianna will be honored with a public memorial at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Kobe played for much of his 20-season career with the Los Angeles Lakers. The date is significant for the family as it combines Bryant’s jersey number, 24, Gianna’s jersey number, 2, and 20, the number of years Bryant spent as a Laker. Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, added on Instagram that 20 is also the number of years that she and her husband were together.
After Bryant’s death, fans honored the athlete by bringing gifts to the Staples Center, and while those have since been cleared away and given to Vanessa and Bryant’s family, Staples Center president Lee Zeidman has encouraged fans who want to contribute to Bryant’s legacy to donate to the MambaOnThree Fund. The fund “exists to honor and support loved ones of the seven other victims involved in the tragedy” and was “created to honor Team Mamba’s mantra, ‘Mamba on Three.’”
The other victims of the crash included Gianna’s basketball teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, Altobelli’s parents, John and Keri Altobelli, Chester’s mother, Sarah Chester, girls’ basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan. The helicopter was on its way to a basketball game at Mamba Sports Academy, which Kobe became involved with after his retirement from the NBA.
A memorial service for the Altobellis was held on Monday at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
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