Lights Out In Memory Of Kate

She didn't want a funeral or a public memorial service, but she got a public tribute anyway.

It was dramatic, but understated. Maybe, just maybe, Katharine Hepburn might have liked it.

Broadway, where she once played on stage, turned out its lights Tuesday night at 8 p.m. It was just for a moment, but it was a massive statement - very definite, and very bold, just like the actress herself, who died last Sunday at her home in Old Saybrook, Ct., at the age of 96.

Some fans gathered in front of the Shubert Theater, where she once starred in "The Philadelphia Story," the play for which she bought the rights - an unheard of move for an actress in those days - and took it to both stage and screen.

"She just meant a lot to all of us, so we just wanted to be here to see this moment," said one fan standing in the street as the marquee lights on the Great White Way went dark.

"It was really important to be here because she was just such an amazing persona in theatre and in movies," said another fan, Roxy Becker, standing in the dark on Broadway. "Even though she didn't want any memorial it's very important to have a little something."

While Hepburn always kept a home in Old Saybrook, and lived there full-time in the last few years of her life, the Hollywood legend was also a presence in New York, keeping an apartment in Manhattan for many years.

As she passed 90 and began to get a lot of attention from those who regarded her as an icon who might not be with us for very much longer, Hepburn was amused by the nice things being said about her as an old lady - since she had from time to time gotten bad press for doing things her own way.

Reflecting on her own mortality, the Oscar-winning actress compared herself to one of New York's most famous landmarks - the Flatiron Building - known not for its beauty, but for its peculiar shape, original style and endurance.

"I'm a madly irritating person," said Hepburn. "Anything definite is irritating - and stimulating... They'll miss me, like an old monument. Like the Flatiron Building."