Michael Jackson finally laid to rest
a private and sombre burial ceremony at Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, California.
London Times
The singer — whose death at the age of 50 has been ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner — was interred within Forest Lawn’s Great Mausoleum, under a stained glass window depicting The Last Supper by Leonardo de Vinci.
His body lies close to that of Walt Disney and Larry Fine of the Three Stooges.
The 200 or so guests at last night’s ceremony included the singer’s family — his brothers all wearing black suits with red ties, sequined gloves and blue armbands — and close friends of the late singer. The latter included the actor Macaulay Culkin; the singer Stevie Wonder; Dame Elizabeth Taylor; and the baseball star Barry Bonds.
Jackson’s former wife, Lisa Marie Presley, wept openly as the singer’s gold-plated casket arrived in a black hearse.
At the start of the ceremony, his children placed a crown on their father’s coffin to signify the final resting place of the King of Pop. During the ceremony, several guests made speeches and Gladys Knight sang the gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.
All of the guests had received a nine-page embossed invitation to the burial, which included colour photographs of Jackson, alongside a quote from the singer’s 1992 book Dancing the Dream: "If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."
After arriving in a motorcade of more than 26 stretch limousines and SUVs, the guests sat on white folding chairs, arranged outdoors on green fake turf in stifling heat, with members of Jackson’s former dancing troupe — dressed in what looked like military cadet uniforms — acting as ushers.
The temperature in Glendale — a suburb of Los Angeles still affected by smoke from nearby wildfires — had reached 37C during the day, but cooled to under 27C in the evening.
After the hour-long ceremony, which didn't start until about an hour and a half after its scheduled time of 7pm, guests made their way to an Italian restaurant in nearby Pasadena, for a catered event described in the invitation as "a time of celebration".
Unlike Jackson’s memorial concert last month, the burial remained largely private, with fans and press alike kept at arm’s length. Although a pooled video feed of the arriving guests was made available by the Jackson family, it was cut off sharply as the proceedings began. Meanwhile, the Glendale police department had set up an exclusion zone outside Forest Lawn — enforced by uniformed and plainclothes officers — and the Federal Aviation Authority restricted all flights within a three-mile radius, to stop news helicopters from hovering overhead.
Nevertheless, flights above 3,000ft were allowed, and cable news channels, including CNN, broadcast silent footage taken from circling aircraft throughout the ceremony.
Although the cost of the burial has been kept private, it was described by one lawyer this week as "extraordinary". Before going ahead with the ceremony, the administrators of Jackson’s estate had to prove to a judge that it could afford the interment fees — the singer’s crypt takes up 12 burial spaces — along with the $150,000 (£92,000) cost of policing the ceremony, and other related expenses.
"Mrs [Katherine] Jackson and her family wish to honor her son by a funeral that seeks to offer solace to his multitude of fans and by which the family also may be comforted," wrote Burt Levitch, a Jackson family lawyer, in documents submitted to the court.
It remains unclear how or if fans and tourists will be able to visit Jackson’s resting place. Forest Lawn typically attracts about a million visitors a year, most of whom come to see the tombs of celebrities.
Designed in the early 1900s as an antidote to "unsightly, depressing" traditional graveyards, Forest Lawn’s theme park approach to death was satirised by the British writer Eveyln Waugh in his 1948 novel The Loved One.
Not all of Jackson’s family wanted him to be buried there: Jermaine Jackson lobbied for his brother’s body to be buried in a Graceland-style museum at his former Californian ranch, Neverland. But many locals objected — the property is located in rustic "wine country", north of Santa Barbara — and the singer’s 79-year-old mother eventually decided on Forest Lawn instead. In any case, it is thought that Mrs Jackson believed that her son wouldn’t have wanted to be buried at Neverland, because the ranch had become synonymous with the child abuse allegations that dogged the later stages of the singer's career, and resulted in his trial in 2005, at which he was found not guilty on all ten counts.
Forest Lawn is also only a 20-minute drive from Mrs Jackson’s home in Encino, a wealthy part of the San Fernando Valley. She lives there with Jackson’s three children, Prince, Paris, and Blanket, after a custody arrangement was reached with their mother, Debbie Rowe.
Although Jackson’s burial brought an end to speculation about the singer’s final resting place, it won’t end the controversy over how he died. Ever since his death was ruled a homicide — his brain was temporarily removed from his body for testing by the coroner — there have been rumours that the singer’s former doctor, Conrad Murray, is facing imminent arrest.
Dr Murray, paid $150,000 a month to treat Jackson before his planned comeback tour in London, had been giving his patient a hospital-grade liquid anesthetic via an IV drip — "magic milk" as the singer called it — to help him sleep.
He was also giving Mr Jackson several different kinds of sedatives. The doctor’s lawyer has said that his client did not give the singer anything that "should have" killed him.
London Times
The singer — whose death at the age of 50 has been ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County coroner — was interred within Forest Lawn’s Great Mausoleum, under a stained glass window depicting The Last Supper by Leonardo de Vinci.
His body lies close to that of Walt Disney and Larry Fine of the Three Stooges.
The 200 or so guests at last night’s ceremony included the singer’s family — his brothers all wearing black suits with red ties, sequined gloves and blue armbands — and close friends of the late singer. The latter included the actor Macaulay Culkin; the singer Stevie Wonder; Dame Elizabeth Taylor; and the baseball star Barry Bonds.
Jackson’s former wife, Lisa Marie Presley, wept openly as the singer’s gold-plated casket arrived in a black hearse.
At the start of the ceremony, his children placed a crown on their father’s coffin to signify the final resting place of the King of Pop. During the ceremony, several guests made speeches and Gladys Knight sang the gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.
All of the guests had received a nine-page embossed invitation to the burial, which included colour photographs of Jackson, alongside a quote from the singer’s 1992 book Dancing the Dream: "If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."
After arriving in a motorcade of more than 26 stretch limousines and SUVs, the guests sat on white folding chairs, arranged outdoors on green fake turf in stifling heat, with members of Jackson’s former dancing troupe — dressed in what looked like military cadet uniforms — acting as ushers.
The temperature in Glendale — a suburb of Los Angeles still affected by smoke from nearby wildfires — had reached 37C during the day, but cooled to under 27C in the evening.
After the hour-long ceremony, which didn't start until about an hour and a half after its scheduled time of 7pm, guests made their way to an Italian restaurant in nearby Pasadena, for a catered event described in the invitation as "a time of celebration".
Unlike Jackson’s memorial concert last month, the burial remained largely private, with fans and press alike kept at arm’s length. Although a pooled video feed of the arriving guests was made available by the Jackson family, it was cut off sharply as the proceedings began. Meanwhile, the Glendale police department had set up an exclusion zone outside Forest Lawn — enforced by uniformed and plainclothes officers — and the Federal Aviation Authority restricted all flights within a three-mile radius, to stop news helicopters from hovering overhead.
Nevertheless, flights above 3,000ft were allowed, and cable news channels, including CNN, broadcast silent footage taken from circling aircraft throughout the ceremony.
Although the cost of the burial has been kept private, it was described by one lawyer this week as "extraordinary". Before going ahead with the ceremony, the administrators of Jackson’s estate had to prove to a judge that it could afford the interment fees — the singer’s crypt takes up 12 burial spaces — along with the $150,000 (£92,000) cost of policing the ceremony, and other related expenses.
"Mrs [Katherine] Jackson and her family wish to honor her son by a funeral that seeks to offer solace to his multitude of fans and by which the family also may be comforted," wrote Burt Levitch, a Jackson family lawyer, in documents submitted to the court.
It remains unclear how or if fans and tourists will be able to visit Jackson’s resting place. Forest Lawn typically attracts about a million visitors a year, most of whom come to see the tombs of celebrities.
Designed in the early 1900s as an antidote to "unsightly, depressing" traditional graveyards, Forest Lawn’s theme park approach to death was satirised by the British writer Eveyln Waugh in his 1948 novel The Loved One.
Not all of Jackson’s family wanted him to be buried there: Jermaine Jackson lobbied for his brother’s body to be buried in a Graceland-style museum at his former Californian ranch, Neverland. But many locals objected — the property is located in rustic "wine country", north of Santa Barbara — and the singer’s 79-year-old mother eventually decided on Forest Lawn instead. In any case, it is thought that Mrs Jackson believed that her son wouldn’t have wanted to be buried at Neverland, because the ranch had become synonymous with the child abuse allegations that dogged the later stages of the singer's career, and resulted in his trial in 2005, at which he was found not guilty on all ten counts.
Forest Lawn is also only a 20-minute drive from Mrs Jackson’s home in Encino, a wealthy part of the San Fernando Valley. She lives there with Jackson’s three children, Prince, Paris, and Blanket, after a custody arrangement was reached with their mother, Debbie Rowe.
Although Jackson’s burial brought an end to speculation about the singer’s final resting place, it won’t end the controversy over how he died. Ever since his death was ruled a homicide — his brain was temporarily removed from his body for testing by the coroner — there have been rumours that the singer’s former doctor, Conrad Murray, is facing imminent arrest.
Dr Murray, paid $150,000 a month to treat Jackson before his planned comeback tour in London, had been giving his patient a hospital-grade liquid anesthetic via an IV drip — "magic milk" as the singer called it — to help him sleep.
He was also giving Mr Jackson several different kinds of sedatives. The doctor’s lawyer has said that his client did not give the singer anything that "should have" killed him.
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