Exactly 10 weeks after his death, Michael Jackson was laid to eternal rest Thursday night in a crypt fit for a king.
Jackson's brother and his two sons all wore black suits and red ties and sported purple arm bands embroidered with gold crowns as they filled the front rows.
The singer's brothers also wore sequin gloves on their left hands and carried the coffin to his crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif.
Gladys Knight performed at the service, which started over an hour late and was attended by a small coterie of family and friends. She sang "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and directed the faithful by singing the Lord's Prayer when they were committing the body.
Among the celebrities at the service were singer Stevie Wonder and legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, who was dressed in black and arrived in a wheelchair.
The King of Pop's first wife, Lisa Marie Presley, actor Macaulay Culkin and Barry Bonds, the disgraced Major League Baseball home-run king, also attended the burial.
The mourners filled more than 200 white chairs set up outside the Great Mausoleum, where Jackson was interred. Two color photos of Jackson sat on easels in front of the crowd.
Jackson's three young children poured their hearts out in personal letters that were placed in their father's gold-plated coffin along with one of his signature gloves. They placed a crown on top of a bed of flowers on the casket.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said it was a "personal honor" to be invited to the service.
"I talked about how it's harder traveling east to west because you face a headwind," Sharpton said. "Michael, coming from Gary, Indiana, always had to battle headwinds, face some accusation. But he landed well. I told the children they crowned their father for all eternity."
Jackson died June 25 at his rented Beverly Hills mansion from an overdose of sedatives allegedly administered by his doctor.
His death has been ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
The 13-time Grammy winner's remains were laid to rest in a concrete-reinforced crypt in the Holly Terrace section of a gothic, fortress-like Great Mausoleum.
The high-security structure is filled with reproductions of Michelangelo statues and a stained-glass replica of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper," according to Forest Lawn's Web site.
The graves of Hollywood legends Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard, Red Skeleton and Nat King Cole dot the heavily guarded mausoleum's dim hallways - as do 24-hour security cameras.
Source: NY Daily News
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