Burt Reynolds' life was honored by his family and friends during a ceremony at a church in Florida, according to Radar Online, followed by a "separate private memorial" coordinated by his ex-wife, Loni Anderson, their adopted son, Quinton Reynolds, and Burt's niece, Nancy Lee Brown. However, there was one notable person absent from the private memorial: Burt's only brother, James "Jimmy" Hooks Reynolds.
"He is so sad and upset he couldn't say goodbye alongside his family," Jimmy's wife, Maria Reynolds, told Radar. Anderson reportedly nixed Jimmy from the private ceremony's invite list because, according to Maria, she was upset Jimmy "didn't do enough to protect her" from the alleged abuse she suffered during her marriage to Burt. It was an allegation Anderson made publicly during a 1995 interview with SFGate, when she said: "The physical abuse I always blamed on the drugs."
In his memoir But Enough About Me, Burt linked Maria to his damaged relationship with his brother. "The gal he married wasn't crazy about me," he wrote (via Radar Online). "She thought I should have been more attentive to Jim and helped him more financially, but I'd already helped him a lot, and there came a time when I thought he should strike out on his own."
Despite their brotherhood being icy, Maria apparently felt everyone should have put their differences aside when Burt died. "No one at the funeral knew Burt like his brother," she said.
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