PERTH, AUSTRALIA  --  The body of Heath Ledger was cremated at the Fremantle cemetery in Perth, Australia on Saturday and Ledger was laid to rest in a private ceremony with only 10 people present.

Before the cremation, hundreds of mourners gathered for a memorial service at Penrhos College where Ledger's former fiancee Michelle Williams read William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") and some of Ledger's favorite songs were played, including the Beatles' Here Comes the Sun.

The grieving loved ones then headed to the Indiana Tea House on Cottesloe Beach, where they joined those who had said goodbye to Heath at Penrhos College, for a wake to celebrate Ledger's life and drink beer and red and white wine by the side of the ocean.

At the wake, People magazine reports, mourners including Williams "took a plunge into the ocean as the sun began to set."

"It's exactly what Heath would have wanted," one mourner told People.

After that, "the swimmers came on shore and stood in a line on both sides of Williams and linked arms. In the last five minutes, as the sun moved toward the horizon, the mourners stood in silence, watching and embracing," People said.

Last update: 02-11-2008 13:48