More than two months after her death, Michael Jackson was buried in a private ceremony before more than 200 relatives and friends Thursday night. The service was delayed over an hour due to late arrival of his family in Forest Lawn in Glendale.
Celebrities such as 77-year-old Elizabeth Taylor waited in the heat tough for outdoor service was scheduled to begin at 7 pm
The Rev. Al Sharpton spoke at the ceremony, and Gladys Knight performed. Just before 10 pm, Sharpton published in your Twitter page that “Michael Jackson has been buried.”
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GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) – Michael Jackson was mourned by his family and celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Barry Bonds and Macaulay Culkin at a private funeral service held Thursday night outside the elaborate mausoleum where the king of pop will be buried.
The funeral started about an hour and a half late due to late arrival of his parents, Joe and Katherine, and family members. We included the singer’s three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris Michael, 10, and Prince Michael II, 7, known as Blanket.
The announcement of the invitation indicates that the service will begin promptly at 7 pm, it started around 8:30.
The 77-year-old Taylor nearly 200 attendees of others waited in the heat of summer, the temperature hit 90 degrees just before sunset. Some mourners were fanning themselves with programs for the service at Forest Lawn in Glendale.
A bright orange moon, a trademark of the devastating forest fires about 10 miles away, looming over the cemetery.
Police had accompanied the family caravan of 31 cars, including Rolls-Royce and Cadillac, Encino Forest Lawn, with the hearse bearing Jackson’s body in the final.
A large airship inflated as light, the kind used in film and television production, and an explosion chamber hovered over the area to be placed in front of the marble mausoleum prepared. The team raised the possibility that the material would be used for Jackson’s concert documentary “This Is It”.
About 250 seats were prepared for the mourners at the roadside artificial turf in the mausoleum. Almost twice the number of media credentials, 435, were issued to reporters and cameramen who were at a distance of services and behind the barricades.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered a eulogy at the funeral enthusiastic crowd of Jackson two months ago, posted on his Twitter account – while the service is still going – which made a repeat Thursday night.
“I just spoke at the conclusion of tributes,” wrote Sharpton. “Gladys Knight sang her heart. Now we prepare to lay him rest up.”
The few groups of fans gathered around the security perimeter surrounding the cemetery entrance fought hard to see. Maria Martinez, 25, a fan of Riverside, Calif., who was accompanied by a dozen other Jackson fans at a gas station near the security perimeter, gave him a handful of pink flowers with a man driving an invitation at the funeral.
“Can you please put these flowers on his grave?” He said. Martinez said she took from a nearby park.
“They were small and ugly, but I did with my heart,” she said. “I will not be able to get close, so this is as close as I could reach it.”
The man agreed, adding: “God bless you.”
Glendale police said all was going well early in the afternoon and there were no arrests.
Jackson will share eternity at Forest Lawn with the likes of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and WC Fields, buried near them in the mausoleum that will be all but off limits to fans who would otherwise turn the tomb of the pop star in a sanctuary.
After the burial, the closest the public can reach the Jackson dome of the mausoleum is a part that shows “The window of the Last Supper”, a stained glass size re-creation of the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci . Several presentations of 10 minutes on the window are held regularly, 365 days a year, but most of the building is restricted.
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