EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Family Of Gary Coleman's Ex-Wife Wants To To Take His Ashes On Whistlestop Train Tour
July 7 2010, Published 9:42 a.m. ET
Gary Coleman's former in-laws want to take the Diff'rent Strokes star on one last train ride, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively.
The 42-year-old actor, who died of a brain hemorrhage, had a life-long love of locomotives and was an avid collector of model trains -- even filling his basement with the collectibles.
His ex-wife's father, Dale Price, told RadarOnline.com that when all the legal issues surrounding Coleman's estate are resolved, the family would like to have their own private and deeply personal tribute to the former child star.
As RadarOnline.com was first to report, Coleman died May 28 after suffering an accidental fall in his Utah home.
"Gary loves trains," Price said.
"Anybody that knows Gary knows that he's an aficionado for trains... There is a place up north of Salt Lake called the Golden Spike Monument, where back in the 1800s, the trains met from the east to the west.
"We thought about taking some of his ashes up there and spreading them over the train tracks."
Even a family trip, with Coleman's ashes by their side, could be a possibility.
"There's been talk about taking Gary's ashes with us on a train trip," Price revealed.
"Those are things we've talked about as a family, whether we're going to do them or not we'll decide in the future.
"But right now we're just hoping and praying as a family that we can get those ashes because we are Gary's family and Gary was a part of our family.
"We do want those ashes with us so we can do some of the things he wanted done."
Price said, with tears welling his eyes, that his family needed to be awarded the star's ashes in order to help it start the grieving and healing process.
Said Price, "We have not really had that opportunity to grieve because of so many with what's been going on and it's been difficult for us to try to really come to grips with everything that happened and how quickly they happened.
"We were just so grateful to be a part of Gary's life and in the end he had a family that was actually there for him.
"I told Shannon, 'He knows that we cared about him, I know he knows we loved him' and I don't think Gary had that for the last 35 years of his life.
"It was only in the last five years that he really had a family and it was really people he could count on, that he could trust, that he could have a good time with."
EXCLUSIVE: Gary Coleman's Ex Wife: I Wanted To Be There When He Was Cremated
Coleman's body was cremated on June 17 in Utah, after independent attorney Robert Jeffs was appointed to oversee his property and cremation.
Coleman's ex-manager and love, Anna Gray, and ex-wife Shannon Price, have filed two separate wills that name them executors of the Diff'rent Strokes star's estate.
EXCLUSIVE: Gary Coleman's Ex-Wife Will Not Visit Body -- One Last Time
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Until legal matters surrounding the estate are resolved in court, Coleman's ashes will remain at Lake Hills Memorial Mortuary in Utah.
