Liza Minnelli digs up mother Judy Garland's remains and has them moved 3,000 miles from New York to Hollywood celebrity cemetery, 48 years after her death 

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Nearly 50 years after her death, Judy Garland's remains were flown from New York to Los Angeles by her family so she can be buried with her children and grandchildren. 

Garland, who died in 1969, was removed from a mausoleum in Hartsdale on Thursday and flown out of JFK in a cargo hold of an American Airlines flight on Tuesday to Los Angeles.

Upon the request of her daughter, 70-year-old Liza Minnelli, the Wizard of Oz star's body will now be put in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

It is believed that Garland's remains were moved 48 years after her death due to a lack of space in the New York plot.

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 

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 

Sources told People that Garland's New York burial spot was not expansive enough to accommodate the actress and 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. 

Moving Garland to the more expansive Hollywood Forever plot will allow for her children and grandchildren to eventually be buried with her.  

Garland will be interred in the Beth Olam section of the cemetery, TMZ reported. The Beth Olam area is usually reserved for Jewish people.

While two of Garland's husbands were Jewish, she was raised Episcopalian and it is believed that she did not convert to Judaism.

Hollywood Forever is home to Tinsel Town greats, including writers, directors and performers. 

Among those buried in the cemetery are George Harrison, Jayne Mansfield, Johnny Ramone, Cecil B DeMille, Mickey Rooney and hundreds more.

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

Visitors come from all over to pay their respects to the Hollywood greats buried at the cemetery, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.

The cemetery, founded in 1899, is the only cemetery actually in Hollywood and is one of the oldest in Los Angeles. 

Upon the request of her daughter, 70-year-old Liza Minnelli, the Wizard of Oz star's body will now be put in the famous Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Along with being home to some of the world's most famous dead celebrities, the cemetery hosts community events, summer movie screenings and concerts. 

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.

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.

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

On Thursday, People, 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. 

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

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 

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.

Luft's autobiography, Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland, will be published by Chicago Review Press in March.

Randy Schmidt, who edited the memoir, said: 'Many people claim Judy... was an alcoholic. 

'Sid disputes this and gives detailed testimony to her real demons, which were the pills.

'More than any of her five husbands, [Luft] was the closest to what some might call the love of her life.

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

'Even though they divorced in 1965, Sid was still the guy she most depended upon for the remaining four years of her life.'

Schmidt said the memoir was 'Sid's long-lost love letter' as he writes of Miss Garland's intelligence and torments.

Following the star's death the New York Times reported: 'Miss Garland's personal life often seemed a fruitless search for the happiness promised in 'Over the Rainbow,' the song she made famous in the movie 'The Wizard of Oz.'

'Her father died when she was 12 years old; the pressures of adolescent stardom sent her to a psychiatrist at the age of 18; she was married five times; she was frequently ill; her singing voice faltered, and she suffered from the effects of drugs she once said were prescribed either to invigorate or tranquilize her.'

The report added that Miss Garland was found by her fifth husband Mickey Deans, who discovered her dead on the bathroom floor at their home in Belgravia. 

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