No, Mama Cass Did Not Die from a Ham Sandwich: In New Book, Her Daughter Shares What Really Happened (Exclusive)

For years, Cass Elliot's daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell had to put up with jokes and innuendo about the rumor that her mom had died after choking on a ham sandwich.

Now, nearly 50 years after the death of the legendary Mamas & Papas singer, Owen reveals in her new memoir, My Mama, Cass, how she learned to accept — and even be grateful for — the strange story that became part of her mother's lore.  

But first she had to learn the truth.

When Cass died on July 29, 1974 in London from a heart attack at age 32, Owen was just 7 years old. "In my younger years, when people would talk to me about my mom, it was always about the stupid sandwich," she tells PEOPLE in a story for this week's print issue.

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"I would go over to kids' houses after school and eventually one of their parents would ask me 'Did your mom really die choking on a ham sandwich?' First of all, the chutzpah to say that to a child is just crazy but it happened a lot. So I felt it was my duty to figure out what that story was all about."

It turned out to be part of a much larger quest to "discern fact from faction" and find out who her mother really was, says Owen.

In the course of speaking with some of her mom's confidants while researching her book, she spoke to her mom's close friend, former Hollywood Reporter columnist Sue Cameron, who had first written in her book, Hollywood Secrets and Scandals, that Cass had died from choking on a ham sandwich.

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Cameron told her how she had first called Cass' apartment in London to check up and how the singer's manager Allan Carr picked up the phone and told her Cass had died. "He was crying and upset and he said, 'There's a half-eaten ham sandwich on the nightstand,'" recalls Cameron. In a panic, he told her, "You have to do this. Just say she died choking on the sandwich." 

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Carr was hoping to offset any other rumors that might arise. Especially about drugs. 

"So many of my mother's peers had died from drug overdoses," says Owen, 57. "Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison. And I think Allan was afraid they'd make the same assumption."

Even though no drugs were found in Cass's system at the time of death, Owen isn't sure if earlier drug use played a part in her mother's untimely death. "Everybody was doing it," she says. "I wasn't there but would be surprised if there weren't any drugs around."

After Cameron told her the story's origin, says Owen, "I really believe they were protecting her legacy. And they were trying to protect me. And in a weird way, I'm grateful for that crazy story. As much as it caused me grief, and people made jokes, I now realize it kept her relevant and ready to shine again."

She hopes her new book does exactly that and presents a much more nuanced and in-depth look at the woman whose sensuous alto once anchored The Mama's & Papa's most beautiful melodies, including California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday.

"I learned that I shared my mom. She didn't belong to just me," Owen says, of what she realized writing her book. As a result of the many discoveries that resulted in her memoir, she says, "She's been gone 50 yers but I feel closer to her than ever."

My Mama, Cass is on sale May 7, and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.