Vintage Chicago Tribune Extra Edition: Chicago reacts to Princess Diana’s death — 25 years ago today

Do you remember where you were when you heard Princess Diana died, Chicago?

Today marks the 25th anniversary of her death, the result of a car crash in Paris.

We look back at how Chicago — the city Diana visited just 15 months prior — reacted to the news of her death and watched her funeral.

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Aug. 31, 1997: Princess Diana and friend killed in car crash

LONDON — The turbulent life of Britain’s Princess Diana ended tragically in a car crash in Paris that also killed her companion, millionaire film producer Dodi Fayed.

Reports said the car overturned in a tunnel along the Seine River while Diana was being pursued by tabloid photographers. Several photographers, or paparazzi, were held for questioning after the crash, police said. Read more.

•Princess Diana’s final hours on a tragic Paris night, recounted by the Associated Press

•Princess Diana’s death stunned the world and changed the royals — looking back 25 years later

Clarence Page: The plight of a public princess

WASHINGTON — SYLVESTER STALLONE calls them “legalized stalking.” ELIZABETH TAYLOR said of them, “It just makes me so angry!” STEVEN SEAGAL renewed his call to legislate strong limits on their activities. TOM CRUISE and LUCIANO PAVAROTTI voiced similar outrage.

If JACKIE ONASSIS were alive today, as YOGI BERRA might have said, she’d be spinning in her grave.

The subject is those confounded paparazzi, the freelance celebrity photographers that Italian filmmaker FEDERICO FELLINI glorified and romanticized in his 1960 film “La Dolce Vita.” Read more.

‘Diana opened her heart and taught us how to love’

About 1,000 Chicagoans stood in line outside the office of the British consul general for hours, striving to pay their respects to Princess Diana and gain solace after her death by signing a condolence book in her honor.

Waiting in the sun, some dressed in funeral black, mourners stood throughout the day in a line that wrapped around the Wrigley Building to the end of the Plaza of the Americas. They wanted to sign their name in the condolence book or write a personal message to the family of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died early Sunday in Paris. Read more.

History may hint at what Diana’s sons face

Walt Disney once said it was no accident that Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White and so many other storybook heroes had to face the world without a mother.

“Everyone knows,” he explained, “that you cannot have danger when a mother is around.”

From the moment Princess Diana died last weekend, her two young sons have been showered with condolences and concern from around the globe. Read more.

Some begin day, others end night with funeral

Sixteen years ago, Jeff Kehler watched the royal wedding on a small TV set in his apartment near London.

On Saturday, he and his wife’s family gathered in their home in south suburban Olympia Fields, around a glass coffee table bearing an elaborate but untouched breakfast.

This time, as the images of Princess Diana’s funeral flashed on the screen, they talked — still with a sense of disbelief — about how the tale he had seen begin in England now was ending.

“There are more people at the funeral than at her wedding,” said Kehler, 38. “I don’t think people ever realized, in the whole world, how much acceptance she had. There would be no bigger turnout had this been the queen’s funeral — she was that popular.”

All over the Chicago area, in homes and at hospitals, in college dorm lounges and bleary all-night coffee shops, people rearranged their lives because they, too, felt compelled to watch the funeral of Diana. Read more.

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