World

Princess Di: Two Years Later

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 30, 1999 / 1:24 PM EDT / CBS

Mourners piled flowers at the gates of what was DianaÂ's Kensington Palace home Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of her death, a date that remains officially unmarked In Britain, though it is by no means unnoticed, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth.

But the tributes are all informal. There is no official commemoration. There is also no public memorial to the princess in London, and none planned.

Some are disappointed.

Â"She was treated badly when she was alive,Â" says one Brit. Â"I think she's being treated badly now that she's dead.Â"

A proposal to build a memorial garden here was dropped when local residents complained. Some people say the decision was a monument to good sense.

Â"I think she's bigger than a memorial,Â" says one. Â"They might put up some terrible memorial to her and we'll think that's ghastly.Â"

Flowers left by mourners fill the gate outside Diana's Kensington Palace in London.

The royal family marked the anniversary on Sunday in Scotland. Last year, DianaÂ's sons William and Harry urged the country to give up its grieving and move on, and by and large, that's happened.

Althorpe, where DianaÂ's brother Earl Spencer built a monument around her gravesite, has become an established tourist attraction - though ticket sales dropped off this year.

Contributions to the charity created in DianaÂ's name have also dropped - though officials say they are still receiving about $50,000 a month in donations -- and have doled out more than $30 million to good causes.

Her name and her photo still draw profits and crowds. But the legend of Diana is fading.

In Paris, meanwhile, the judge investigating the crash that killed her is expected to formally release his findings this week -- that driver Henri Paul was drunk and speeding: just an accident with no sinister plot.

CBS News Correspondent Tom Rivers adds that Americans were prominent among a small group of mourners at DianaÂ's home on Tuesday.

Â"We felt a close bond with her and we just felt we wanted to be here for two years,Â" said New Yorker Jeffrey Kahler.

Although acknowledging the different circumstances, many felt a similar kind of loss with the death of John F. Kennedy Jr.