Ryan Melcher, 37, is Doris Day’s only grandson. He is the only son of Doris’s only son, Terry Melcher, who died in 2004 after battling melanoma.
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Ryan works as a real estate agent for Sotheby’s in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where his grandmother had also been living since the 1970s.
The Doris Day Animal Foundation, which she founded, released the news of her death on Monday.
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Melcher said it had been an “emotional 24 hours” since he learned of her death in a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday.
He described his ‘grandma’ as a ‘culture icon,’ ‘philanthropist,’ and ‘champion’ for animal rights, and said he was proud of her.
He did, however, mention how they had drifted apart in the years leading up to her pneumonia death. He says the last time he spoke to her was when she invited him to dinner after his father died in 2004.


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