Sinatra still loved by fans

Here and around the world, fans old and young celebrated on Saturday the life of the skinny singer who became pop music's Chairman of the Board. They tuned into radio and television tributes and snapped up his greatest hits in a buying binge that could rival those that followed the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon.

Courtesy of Capitol Records Fans across the country were dismayed to hear of Frank Sinatra's death Thursday night.

"I love his music. It's romantic," 34-year-old Rosina Garcia said as she thumbed through the Sinatra collection at the Wherehouse music store in Palm Springs. "All my friends back East are devastated."

"He lived a bold and wonderful life," said Margie Cromier, a 36-year-old Los Angeles area resident who's riding a wave of youthful nostalgia for the music of the Swing Era. "It's a loss, but he had a day in the sun."

Las Vegas remembered the man who drew millions to stage shows and casinos with his aura of smoky, whiskey-tinged good times by dimming the lights on the famed Strip for one minute Friday night. In Hollywood, Capitol Records marked the passing of one of its biggest stars by draping black bunting around the top of its headquarters high-rise that resembles a stack of records.

TV news coverage gave way to a flood of hastily assembled tributes and medleys featuring Sinatra's songs, movies and television works.

And the rush was on at music stores, where Sinatra's albums flew off the shelves.

"You wouldn't believe it, there's like six people looking through his stuff right now," said Ed Chavey, a salesman at the Tower Records store in Hollywood.

At Barnes and Noble on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, 42-year-old Joe Mangano of Brooklyn passed a nearly empty display of Sinatra-related books labeled "Remembering Frank Sinatra." He picked up a copy of "Rat Pack Confidential."

"It wasn't unexpected, but the fact he died puts the real importance of his career in perspective," Mangano said.

In Britain, the rush on music stores that began with Sinatra's death late Thursday night in Los Angeles was in full flood Saturday, with fans favoring compact discs of his early favorites or greatest hits.

Sinatra's wife, Barbara, and children remained at the family's Beverly Hills home, where celebrities visited to pay their respects in limos, passing knots of fans who stopped outside to lay flowers or just gawk.

Among those who dropped by were actor Robert Wagner and comedian Tom Dreesen. Wagner told reporters he will speak at Sinatra's funeral Wednesday, and Dreesen said he would be a pallbearer.

Sinatra, whose innumerable "signature" tunes included "My Way," "New York, New York" and "Strangers in the Night," died of heart failure at 82 after months of declining health and frequent death rumors. A funeral mass will be held at noon on Wednesday at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills, Sinatra spokeswoman Susan Reynolds said.

A vigil service is planned for 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the same church. Both services will be private and will be officiated by Cardinal Roger Mahony, spiritual leader of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Burial will also be private, Ms. Reynolds said. She did not give a family name.

05-18-98