Michael Jackson Is Finally Laid to Rest

More than two months after he died, the King of Pop is finally laid to rest Thursday night within the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

The ceremony was attended by family and so many famous friends of the late singer; including ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, best friends Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin and fiancée Mila Kunis, comedian Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy, Gladys Knight, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and many more.

Rows of white chairs were set up for the mourners on the lawn right outside the mausoleum, which is not visible from the cemetery’s main gate. Jackson’s children; Prince Michael, Paris and Blanket, parents Joe and Katherine, sisters Janet, La Toya and Rebbie Jackson and his five brothers were eventually all in attendance, with the kids taking seats in the front row, facing a portrait of their father.

Michael’s brothers; Jermaine, Marlon, Randy, Tito and Jackie, each wearing black armbands and a sequined glove on one hand as a tribute to their beloved brother. They carried his flower-covered casket out of the hearse and placed it before about 200 mourners on a stage decorated with white lilies and white roses. Jackson’s three children then placed a crown on their father’s coffin to mark his place as the King of Pop.

An opening prayer was delivered by Pastor Lucius Smith and Gladys Knight sang a gospel, His Eye Is on the Sparrow. Then, Clifton Davis performed the Jackson 5 song he wrote, Never Can Say Goodbye. Jackson’s father Joseph and the Rev. Al Sharpton addressed the mourners, as did close friends and family.

After the ceremony, Jackson’s five brothers carried the casket to the Grand Mausoleum, where at 9:43 p.m. Jackson entered his final resting place. Afterwards, the family’s rep, Ken Sunshine issued a statement, “The Jackson Family wishes to once again thank all of Michael Jackson’s fans around the world for their generous outpouring of support during this terribly difficult time. Their expressions of love for Michael and his music have sustained the Jackson Family.”

The funeral for the Heal the World singer was actually planned on August 29, which would have been the artist’s 51st birthday, but the burial was postponed for unexplained reasons. Jackson’s estate will pay for the small but expensive funeral, which took place under heavy security. “The expenses will be extraordinary, but Michael Jackson was extraordinary,” Jeryll Cohen, an attorney for the singer’s estate, said Wednesday at a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court dealing with the funeral costs.

Jackson’s brother Marlon has said that Michael’s three children have each written letters to their father that will lie with him alongside one of his signature white gloves. The notes by Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and Blanket, 7, read: “Daddy, we love you, we miss you.’

[ via E! Online and People ]

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