Hundreds attend Anna Pearce memorial service

COEUR d’ALENE — Tears and laughter filled Lake City Community Church on Saturday as family members and close friends recalled their fondest memories of Anna Marie Pearce.

Hundreds of friends, fans and family members gathered in the church for the memorial service to celebrate the life of the actress, famously known as Patty Duke. A longtime Coeur d'Alene resident, actress, author and mental health advocate, Pearce died March 29 at the age of 69.

"Anna loved to laugh," actress Melissa Gilbert said, recalling times during the nearly 40 years of friendship where she and Pearce laughed and cried together, on camera and off. "She was so many things to so many people — mentor, co-star, advocate, inspiration, leader, daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and godmother and friend. How is it possible that God could make something so small, and yet so mighty."

Pearce is known for her award-winning performance as Helen Keller in the 1962 movie, "The Miracle Worker," becoming the youngest actor to win an Oscar. She went on to become the youngest person to star in her own prime-time television series, "The Patty Duke Show," in the 1960s.

Gilbert was a teenager the first time she met Pearce. She was in her manager’s office, with her mother, waiting to meet "the" Helen Keller — the one who would be Anne Sullivan to Gilbert's Helen Keller in the 1979 production of "The Miracle Worker." One of the first things Gilbert noticed was how "tiny" Pearce was, barely 5-foot tall; and as small as Pearce's shoes were, Gilbert said they would be "impossible to fill."

"She had courage like no one I've ever known," Gilbert said. "She inspired so many through her advocacy on issues ranging from mental illness to LGBT issues, civil rights and everything in-between. She was one in a million. She had moxie. I love her and I am going to miss her every day."

Pearce's son, Mackenzie Astin, asked each person in attendance to take a moment and offer gratitude, peace and appreciation to those closest to them in the crowd. In the Catholic church they would say, "peace be with you." Astin suggested a similar statement, and the words, "Anna be with you," reverberated throughout the church — "because she is," Astin added.

Astin said from the earliest days of Pearce's career on stage, she had a profound affect on those who witnessed her work.

"And the thing about her work was whether it be dramatic or serious or lighthearted or all of the above, she had an incredible ability to connect with people and to make people feel connected to her," he said. "It may have been her greatest gift to the world."

He attempted to hold back tears as he spoke about his mother's battle with mental illness and the book she had written, "Call Me Anna," in 1987 after she was diagnosed as manic depressive, now known as bipolar disorder. He said it was with "fearlessness and courage" that she undertook the steps to take the name of the disease she lived with for so long and gave it a face.

"She made it OK to be who you were," he said, no longer able to fight back the tears. "She took her own story and gave it to the world ... There are people alive today who would not be, had my mom not had the audacity to put into print what had been too taboo before."

Pearce's nephew, Mike Kennedy, had the audience in fits of laughter when he told a story about Pearce as his landlord in downtown Coeur d'Alene. He knew he was in trouble his last week as a single man when his aunt and his mother decided to stop by the morning after his bachelor party.

"I have never heard such a shriek of horror in my life," Kennedy said, as he described the mess and admitted he had failed to clean up some dog poop in his basement.

He grew serious as he recalled how Pearce helped others over the years who suffered from mental health issues similar to her own. He said she loved North Idaho and each person she met "profoundly and beautifully" affected her.

"So on behalf of the family she loved, and on behalf of the friends she loved, we want to thank you for the outpouring of affection," Kennedy said. "And to the people of Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho, who most of all changed her life, thank you for welcoming, accepting, celebrating and loving Patty Duke, but ultimately, in her most contented and happy years, thank you simply for finally calling her Anna."