His family paid tribute to him with a low-key ceremony, in accordance with his wishes, and in keeping with the very private lifestyle he had always cultivated,

His estranged son Joe D acted as a pallbearer.

DiMaggio died in Florida on Monday, aged 84, after losing a six-month battle against lung cancer.

About 60 relatives and close friends attended the invitation-only funeral - even President Bill Clinton, who had reportedly shown interest in attending, had been politely refused.

Fans say goodbye

The 300 fans who had come to pay respects to the 1950s icon, known as Joltin' Joe, were cordoned off in a park opposite the St. Peter and Paul Church where the funeral service took place.

"He gave (San Francisco) a good name," said 68-year-old Miguel Rangel, a former waiter who was among the observers outside the church. "It's the biggest thing he could do for the city, and for himself. He's one of ours."

The crowd burst into spontaneous applause and cheered "bravo" as his coffin was carried down the steps of the church where DiMaggio received his first communion and married his first wife.

As the church bells tolled, the coffin was placed in a hearse and taken for burial at a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

Home ties

The centre fielder played for 13 seasons for the New York Yankees, where his teams won 10 American League titles and nine World Series.

The Yankee Clipper scored 56 hits in consecutive games

But it was in 1941 that DiMaggio really took centre stage, scoring hits in 56 consecutive games, a record that has never been challenged.

He was nicknamed the "Yankee Clipper," but San Francisco has always laid a special claim to him, especially after the homeboy hero's marriage (only lasting nine months) to screen goddess Marilyn Monroe at San Francisco City Hall in 1954.

He was immortalised in a verse in the Simon and Garfunkel song Mrs Robinson:

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What's that you say, Mrs Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

Father and son

During the funeral service, Dominic DiMaggio, Joe's younger brother and a Boston Red Sox centre fielder, delivered the eulogy.

But attention was also focused on a darker side of the baseball legend as it became known that DiMaggio's estranged only son, Joe Jr, served as a pall bearer at the funeral despite years of tension with his father.

The younger DiMaggio, known as Joey D, has lived a life far removed from the usual style of celebrity families. Living in a trailer and working in a junkyard, Joey D, 57, kept out of the media spotlight and away from his family, which includes two adopted daughters to whom DiMaggio was very close.

According to reports, Joey D. did not see his father in the last years of his life and he was left a relatively small $20,000 in DiMaggio's will.