Casey Kasem’s Children Beg Norway to Deny Jean Kasem's Request to Have Radio Icon Buried in Oslo

Those closest to the radio legend claim he wanted to be buried in Los Angeles

By Claudia Rosenbaum, Mike Vulpo Aug 20, 2014 2:32 AMTags
Casey KasemAP Photo/Eric Jamison

Casey Kasem's final resting place is still being debated.  

Almost two months after the radio icon passed away, Casey's widow, Jean Kasem, has submitted a written request to the government of Norway asking that she be allowed to have her late husband buried in the capital of Oslo.

This week, however, Casey's children are fighting back and demanding the burial happen in California, where their father called home.

In a letter obtained by E! News, Kerri Kasem and other family members ask Norway's government to refuse Jean's burial request.

"As beautiful as your country is, our father has never spoken of any desire to be buried in Norway either to us or to his friends," the family states. "In fact, it was the opposite. Casey wanted to be buried in his hometown of Los Angeles, California, his home of over 53 years." 

Chad Buchanan/Getty Images

"We beg you, to please decline the request of Jean Kasem and her daughter Liberty to bury Casey Kasem in Norway."

Previously, Jean wrote in her letter that Casey "always said that Norway symbolizes peace and looks like heaven" and that she "would like to respectfully fulfill his wishes."

Casey's children from his previous marriage, however, urge the government to "not be fooled into believing his wife, Jean Kasem, who abandoned and isolated him during the last year of his life in favor of her boyfriend, John Paul Gressy." 

Oslo's Managing Director of Funeral Service Wenche Elizabeth Madsen Eriksson recently told NBC News that permission to bury Casey in Oslo has been granted, adding that "as far as I know, he is not in Norway yet."

Casey Kasem was known as one of the country's most famous radio DJs and a cartoon voice-over artist who worked on Scooby-Doo. He died at 82 on June 15, 2014.

He had been suffering from Lewy body dementia, a degenerative disease similar to Parkinson's.