20 YEARS ON..
IShe smiled and said ‘I love you’.. then drove off for work and I never saw her again
DONNA CLARKSON
ON FINAL MEMORY OF HER DAUGHTER
t had been a wonderful mother and daughter day, spent shopping for new shoes. And, with a car stuffed with bags of purchases and a beaming smile on her face, Lana Clarkson bid farewell to her mother and drove off.
That was the last mum Donna saw of her 40-year-old daughter, her final words “I love you” ringing in her ears.
Hours later Lana lay dead, murdered by record producer Phil Spector, 20 years ago today.
And while many remember Lana’s killing, Donna, now a grandmother of one, is comforted by the cherished memories of her last shopping trip with her daughter.
“That day is so vivid to me and such a blessing that I will always be grateful for,” the 78-year-old says. “Lana needed to buy flats for work because all she had were heels.”
Having paused her acting career due to injury, Lana was working as a hostess at the House of Blues club on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
“It was a way of her making money but also reminding people she was available for auditions again,” says Donna.
“That day she told me how she was getting busy again and wasn’t sure how long she’d carry on with her hostess job. But while she continued working there, she was on her feet all the time and needed to be comfortable.
“So we went to a store and I bought her some shoes. I remember putting them in her car and she had this huge smile on her face. She said ‘Oh Mom, thank you for my shoes. I love you’.
“And then she drove off to work and I never saw her again.”
The next day, in the early hours of Monday, February 3, 2003, Lana was shot dead by Spector at his hilltop Hollywood mansion.
The producer, famed for creating the Wall of Sound and his work on the Beatles album Let It Be, was 20 feet from his driver at the time of the killing. The chauffeur was sat outside waiting to take Lana back to her car and back home.
But justice was not straightforward.
The six-foot model had an 18-year Hollywood career, in shows and movies including Knight Rider and Fast
CAREER
Times at Ridgemont High. But Donna, who has two other children, had to endure a sixmonth trial hearing Spector’s lawyers portray Lana as a failing B movie actress who took her own life.
“Every day was like being hit in the gut, listening to the untrue things they were saying,” she recalls. After two trials, one in 2007 and a retrial in 2009, Spector was convicted of second degree murder and jailed for 19 years.
“If he had just told the truth 20 years ago,” says Donna, “we would not have been left with the memories of how he tried to malign her in death.”
Spector died behind bars aged 81