Final goodbye to King of Pop

Michael Jackson laid to rest in Los Angeles n Stars grace funeral ceremony

About 200 people, including Elizabeth Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley, Macaulay Culkin, Quincy Jones and many other celebrities, attended the nearly 90-minute ceremony behind the gates of the heavily guarded Forest Lawn cemetery here, several miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

With closed streets, nervous guards, restricted airspace over the grounds and family and friends arriving in a multi-vehicle motorcade, the proceedings took on the feel of a presidential visit.
Small clusters of fans of Jackson, one of the biggest-selling entertainers of all time, gathered at blockaded streets around the cemetery, with one group unfurling a large white banner that read, in part, “Gone too soon.”

Members of the news media — 460 people from the around the world received credentials — far outnumbered the fans, and they greeted every car turning into the gated grounds with a bouquet of camera flashes and quizzical looks. Was that Ms Taylor? Joe Jackson, the family patriarch? Corey Feldman?
It was. They and other guests were shown for a short time on a video feed from the invitation-only service before it ended abruptly as Jackson’s brothers, wearing single white gloves in homage to their brother, opened the back door of a hearse.

After the service, the family released a statement, saying: “Michael Jackson reached his final resting place tonight at 9:43 pm PST (Pacific Standard Time)in The GreatMausoleum at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park.” “The pallbearers were Michael’s five brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy Jackson,” the statement continued. “At the beginning of the ceremony, Michael’s children placed a crown on their father’s coffin to signify the final resting place of the King of Pop.”
Gladys Knight sang the gospel hymn “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” the statement said, and songwriter Clifton Davis sang “Never Can Say Goodbye,” the hit he wrote for the Jackson 5. Afterward cars streamed out, and the family planned a private reception at a restaurant in Pasadena.

A memorial service attended by several thousand fans, family members and friends had already been held for Jackson, 50, who died June 25. The memorial, on July 7 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, took place in the arena where he had been rehearsing for a series of London concerts expected to revive his career.
But the family never announced burial plans, and news station helicopters lost track of the hearse carrying his gleaming gold coffin after it left the arena.