Poetic Obituaries: The sculptors were Mr. [David] Slivka

and a colleague, Ibram Lassaw, drafted to assist him. They kept their identities secret to protect the feelings of Mrs. Thomas, [Dylan Thomas' wife,] who had arrived in New York wild with grief and was staying at the Slivkas' home.

Carrying out the job on Nov. 11, the sculptors had little more than an hour before Mrs. Thomas arrived to view the body. Working quickly, they made a five-piece mold of Thomas's face and head. (His poetic mass of hair was recreated afterward by Mr. Slivka afterward in the studio.)

It troubled them, Mr. Slivka said, that Thomas lay there naked: the hotel had impounded his things, including his clothes. Then their eyes lighted on an undertaker whose stocky build matched the poet's. He was dispatched home to the Bronx for a suit and tie. The suit was fine, the tie deplorable, Mr. Slivka recalled.

from The New York Times: David Slivka, a Sculptor and Painter, Dies at 95

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