Gene Pitney's funeral is to take place today in his home town of Rockville in Connecticut. A service will take place at the town's All Saints Church at 11am local time, before the singer is interred at Somers Centre Cemetery. A spokesman confirmed that Pitney's body had been flown back to the US on Saturday afternoon, and added: "His family have taken the news as can be expected. They felt awful that he was so far away when it happened but they are glad that he is home now."
The firm handling the funeral, Small & Pietras, say on their website that the singer's family have asked for donations in place of flowers to be made to Connecticut Public Broadcasting or to the Humane Society Of The United States.
Elsewhere in Pitney news, some Welsh fans are already cashing in on the singer's current newsworthiness and flogging Pitney merchandise on the internet - in particular ticket stubs from the singer's last concert in Cardiff, a free leaflet distributed at the show and a copy of the South Wales Echo from the day of his death. One of the ticket stubs reportedly fetched £300. Asked about the auctions, Potter John Hughes, a friend of the singer, told reporters: "It's morbid, it's ghoulish but I suppose that's the way the world is these days. I find it strange and mercenary."