Johnny Carson’s Final Resting Place Was a Mystery Even to Ed McMahon

When Johnny Carson died in 2005, Tonight Show co-host, Ed McMahon, released a memoir called Here’s Johnny to look back on their 46 years of friendship. He disclosed Carson was well prepared for most situations but didn’t talk about his “final exit” except to specify his departure should be private. And in the end, not even McMahon knew the location of Carson’s eternal resting place.

Johnny Carson died at 79 in 2005

After retiring from The Tonight Show and essentially disappearing from the spotlight in 1992, Carson lived the rest of his life in the quiet company of friends and family, McMahon said in his memoir. He enjoyed sailing his yacht, traveling, and retreating to the privacy of his mansion.

“In the years after he left the show, Johnny was a happy man,” McMahon wrote. “He was married to a woman he adored, he loved playing tennis on his own court, to which he walked through a tunnel that ran from his house under a highway; and he loved his yacht, the 130-foot Serengeti.”

McMahon added a happy home life likely would have been enough to keep Carson happy. He married his fourth wife, Alexis Maas, in 1987, and they remained together until he died. That marriage was his longest.

On Jan. 23, 2005, Carson died at 79 of complications stemming from emphysema. He left behind Maas and two sons from his first marriage. Per Legacy, Carson’s nephew, Jeff Sotzing, said to the Associated Press, “He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable.”

He added, “There will be no memorial service.”

McMahon wrote about Carson’s death in Here’s Johnny. “Too soon,” he said. “… many years too soon.”

Johnny Carson’s final resting place was exclusive knowledge, said Ed McMahon

McMahon wrote Carson was a perfectionist who always planned but “wasn’t ready for his final exit,” referring to his death. “In all our conversations, he never talked about his funeral,” he wrote. According to him, they both just planned on living forever.

“However, just in case immortality didn’t work out for him,” he added, “he told me that he wanted a private departure.”

As such, the “final resting place of [Carson’s] ashes is known only to Alexis and his family.”

Seemingly at Carson’s request, there was no public ceremony or gravesite. However, a bronze statue stands outside the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. There is also a park dedicated to him in Burbank, California.

Ed McMahon said Johnny Carson didn’t want any public ceremony

Some observers have wondered why there was no public memorial for the loss of such a beloved icon, implying there was resentment toward Carson from his family. But according to McMahon, that was Carson’s final wish, which didn’t surprise him. “No ceremony,” he wrote. “That was the key.”

The last time he recalled seeing the iconic host was about a year before he died. “He looked like a million dollars,” he said of his old friend. They talked about their “kids and [their careers] and the state of America,” reminiscing and bantering the way they did on The Tonight Show.

McMahon said he added the moment to a collection of cherished memories. On June 23, 2009, he died of health complications at the age of 86.