LONDON, Sept 1: Kathy Martin joined the stream of visitors laying tributes to Princess Diana outside the gates of Kensington Palace on Thursday, just as she did 20 years ago.

The 55-year-old Diana devotee vividly remembers Aug. 31, 1997. She was wakened by an early morning phone call from family in Australia telling her the princess had died in a Paris car accident, then raced to the palace with her daughter and was among the first to leave a floral tribute. Throngs of people began arriving 10 minutes later, adding cards, teddy bears and mountains of flowers.

Martin returns to Kensington Palace, where Diana once lived, every year on the anniversary of her death, on Christmas and on the princess’ birthday. On Thursday, she brought picture collages, poems and a Victorian spongecake decorated with Diana’s picture, which she shared with other royal fans.

“She was just the beautiful, warming, caring humanitarian,” Martin said. “She touched all walks of life. Diana always put a smile on the face and that’s something for people.”

The weeks leading up to the anniversary have been filled with television documentaries and newspaper stories reflecting on the princess and her contributions to the country and to the monarchy. Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, added to the buildup with a series of heart-wrenching interviews in which they talked about their mother’s love and the pain of her death.

On Thursday though, it was the public’s turn to recall “The People’s Princess.” Fans like Martin gathered at the palace to mark the two decades since Diana’s death triggered a flood of grief across Britain and beyond. Her admirers began paying tribute to the princess before dawn, placing candles shaped in the letter “D″ at the palace gates.

“We had never met her and been nowhere near her, but I think she touched so many people because of who she was, the way she conducted herself in the context of where she was living and who she became,” said Mara Klemich, 55, a well-wisher from Sydney.

William and Harry weren’t scheduled to take part in any events Thursday. They honored their mother Wednesday, visiting a garden at Kensington Palace where she used to stroll and talk to gardeners about their ever-changing displays. The princes and the Duchess of Cambridge, William’s wife, met with well-wishers afterward.

The 36-year-old princess died in the early hours of Aug. 31, 1997. Her Mercedes, pursued by paparazzi, crashed into a concrete pillar in the Alma Tunnel in Paris while traveling at more than 60 mph (100 kph).

Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul were all killed. Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was injured but survived.

In Paris, royal watchers gathered at the tunnel Thursday to remember Diana’s life. Some wept.

“It’s been 20 years now, but there are people you don’t forget, and she is one of them,” said Sylviane Rives, who works nearby. “That is what I wrote on a little card for her.”

Those who didn’t go to the palace or to the tunnel took to social media to express their grief and to recall her kindness.

The co-designer of Diana’s wedding dress, Elizabeth Emanuel, tweeted a picture of the princess shortly after her arrival at St. Paul’s Cathedral for her 1981 wedding. In the image, the designers and bridesmaids straighten the dress’ immense train, unfurling a sea of white that flowed in her wake.

“Thinking of the wonderful times we spent with Diana and the great joy she brought into our lives and all those who knew her,” Emanuel said.

Elton John offered a tribute, posting an image on social media with his hand on her shoulder. Both are smiling.

The pop icon, who memorably performed his moving song “Candle In The Wind” at Diana’s funeral, wrote “20 years ago today, the world lost an angel. #RIP.”

As the day wore on, images of the day two decades ago ran on the television newscasts and websites, reminding the nation of events long past. Aerial photographs offered reminders of the carpet of flowers that people brought to the palace, one bouquet at a time.

The intense outpouring will likely not be the final time the country mourns for Diana, said Pauline Maclaran, co-author of “Royal Fever: The British Monarchy in Consumer Culture.” Like other cultural icons, such as Marilyn Monroe or James Dean, Diana will live on — even if the royals may have said all they wish on the subject.

“Maybe a new generation doesn’t relate to her that much,” Maclaran said. “But that will change. … The media will find new and innovative ways to reinvent her.” AP

LONDON, Aug 27: The shock came late on a summer evening: After an idyllic Mediterranean holiday, Princess Diana had been in a car crash in Paris. Her boyfriend was dead; she was hospitalized, condition unclear.

She died a few hours later on Aug. 31, 1997, plunging Britain into grief that lingers to this day. Twenty years later, the memory of Diana — a youthful mother cut down, leaving two children behind — remains vital, her influence still felt.

Time has blurred the memories, but people around the world still remember Diana as a young bride, so taken with Prince Charles, and as a glamorous trendsetter dancing at the White House with John Travolta. She was the fun-loving mom taking her two boys on amusement park rides, and the tireless charity worker who reached out to AIDS patients when they were shunned by much of society.

The sons Diana left behind — Prince William, now 35, and Prince Harry, 32 — are playing increasingly important roles in Britain’s national life as the public focuses on the next generation of royals, sometimes at the expense of William and Harry’s father, Prince Charles.

“Her essential legacy is her children and the fact is that they have become known more as her children than as his, in the sense that the charity work they are doing resonates with what she was doing — difficult issues like mental health, just like she took on AIDS,” Diana biographer Andrew Morton said. “So she has a living legacy.”

Morton’s 1992 book about Diana revealed the depth of her despair: her struggle with a serious eating disorder, attempts at self-harm, and what he calls the “deep unhappiness” of her union with Charles, which ended in a bitter divorce in 1996.

It was supposed to be so different. Charles was heir to the throne, and Diana’s entry into the royal family meant she was likely to become queen one day.

Theirs was perhaps a common story of infidelity and broken vows, but played out on an uncommonly public stage. Each used TV interviews and books by favored authors as megaphones in their bids for public sympathy.

Charles, with his somewhat stiff demeanor and unapproachable public persona, could never compete with Diana’s doe-eyed appeal, especially when she famously complained there had always been “three people in this marriage” — an arch reference to Camilla Parker Bowles, who would marry Charles eight years after Diana’s sudden death.

Many saw Diana as a young mother wronged by a privileged older husband’s refusal to give up his lifelong mistress — even though the princess admitted to affairs of her own.

Refusing to fit the Windsor mold, she sought new ways to cope with fabulous wealth, worldwide fame, and sky-high expectations. She reached out and actually touched AIDS patients — a taboo at the time — and travelled to former combat zones to highlight the dangers land mines posed to civilians.

Many felt they could relate to her when she recounted her own battles with bulimia and talked openly of her disappointment and loneliness.

Some remember her for bringing a refreshing informality to the royal family — for example, taking young William and Harry in 1993 to Thorpe Park, a popular amusement center near London where they squealed and screamed along with everyone else on the water rides.

Carol Meredith, a nurse who recently visited the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park with her husband, said that in the past senior royals would have had the amusement park cleared so they could enjoy it without mingling with the public.

Today, she said, the royals aren’t like that.

“Diana changed that,” she said. “When she used to take her kids to Thorpe Park, she enjoyed being with everybody else and doing the same as everybody else. She changed what you think of the royal family.”

Meredith’s husband, Andrew, said Diana was different from other royals.

“They were a little bit staid,” he said. “They were a little bit, you know, ‘We are the royalty, here to be seen but not to be spoken to or touched.’ At least with Diana, you felt as if she was touchable. She was within reach.”

The difference between the two approaches — and the depth of the public’s affection for Diana — crystallized in the days after her death, when tens of thousands of mourners paid tribute to Diana by placing flowers outside London’s Kensington Palace, where she had lived.

Queen Elizabeth II was on vacation in Scotland at the time of the accident, and she remained there for several days. She declined to lower the flag atop Buckingham Palace to half-staff, citing protocol, as rare public anger mounted against the monarch.

Elizabeth seemed, publicly at least, unmoved by Diana’s death, even as the prime minister — media-savvy Tony Blair — coined a memorable phrase in describing Diana as “the people’s princess.”

The queen eventually relented and came to London to pay her respects. The royal family then took steps to regain public favor, in part by adopting the more people-friendly approach Diana had used.

Chloe Dyson, a secondary school teacher also visiting Hyde Park, said Diana remains an “inspirational figure” two decades after her death.

“She still obviously has a strong image in the British psyche,” Dyson said, adding that Diana’s accessible approach brought her closer to the British people than other royals.

“People felt they could identify with her,” Dyson said, remembering the impact of Diana’s charitable endeavors, including visits to hospitals and homeless shelters. “She was doing good work.”AP