Judy Garland's remains moved from NY to LA to clear out plots for relatives... more than 47 years after her death

By Dailymail.com Reporter

Published: 02:28 EST, 27 January 2017 | Updated: 03:54 EST, 27 January 2017

Judy Garland's remains are being flown from New York to Los Angeles in a move to provide extra plots for her relatives, People reports.

Garland, best known for her iconic performance as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, died at the age of 47 on June 22, 1969 after she fatally overdosed on barbiturates. 

The screen legend's death was preceded by years of tragic struggles with drugs, alcohol and mental illness.

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Icon: The remains of Judy Garland, seen her in her signature role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, are being moved from New York to Los Angeles in a move to provide extra plots for her relatives, according to People 

On Thursday, Garland's remains were transported from John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles, as her family is having her re-interred at the famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery. 

The burial ground is host to a number of other prominent late personalities, including Cecil B. Demille and Mickey Rooney.

In the wake of her 1969 death, Garland was initially taken to Manhattan's Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, drawing a crowd of an estimated 20,000 people who flocked to the venue to say goodbye to the silver screen legend. 

Final resting place: Garland will be re-interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is host to a number of other prominent late personalities, such as Cecil B. Demille and Mickey Rooney 

Family ties: Judy (right) appeared in 1963 with daughter Liza Minnelli on her CBS series, The Judy Garland Show

She was subsequently taken to Ferncliff Cemetery about 25 miles away, where she was first interred.

Sources told the magazine that Garland's New York burial spot was not expansive enough to accommodate the rest of her relatives including her three children (who are all alive): Liza Minnelli, 70; Lorna Luft, 64; and Joey Luft, 61; and their children.

The magazine Thursday published excerpts from Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland, a new book from Garland's third husband Sid Luft, who she was married to from 1952 until 1965.  

Follow the yellow brick road: Garland's The Wizard of Oz remains one of the most beloved films in the history of American cinema

Fast stardom: Judy was only 16 when she began filming the legendary motion picture 

Hollywood original: In an upcoming posthumous memoir from her ex-husband, Judy was hailed as 'the greatest talent who ever lived'

While Luft died at 89 on September 15, 2005, the book was compiled from notes he had left. 

Calling her 'the greatest talent who ever lived,' Luft described his late ex as 'a very rare mix of shattered nerves and insecurities, self-destructiveness, and suicidal tendencies but also a true genius.'

He said that “emotionally, none of [her inner circle] ever overcame' her death. 

Talent runs in the family: Both Minnelli and Garland ascended to Hollywood stardom. The mother-daughter duo were snapped in 1964 in London, where Garland was tragically found dead just five years later

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