Poignant service says goodbye to Jackson (2)

Emotions peaked when the Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a fiery eulogy highlighting all the barriers Jackson broke and the troubles he faced. “Every time he got knocked down, he got back up,” Sharpton said, and the applauding crowd again jumped to its feet.

Sharpton rode the moment, building to a crescendo. “There wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy,” he said later, addressing Jackson’s three children in the front row. “It was strange what your daddy had to deal with!”

Jubilation erupted, with the longest standing ovation of the day. It seemed as if Sharpton broke through some sort of wall, freeing shouts from the crowd of “We love you Michael!” After he left the stage, chants of “Mi-chael! Mi-chael!” filled the arena.

The parade of famous names continued: Jennifer Hudson, Stevie Wonder, Usher, Martin Luther King III and his sister Bernice, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Kobe Bryant.

For a performer who smashed the race barrier on MTV and did as much as anyone to make black music mainstream — not to mention was accused of trying to turn himself white through skin treatments and plastic surgery — the ceremony had a remarkably black cast. John Mayer and Brooke Shields were the only white celebs with major roles.

700,000 gawkers? More like 1,000
Another unexpected aspect was the logistics. The mayhem and traffic snarls that had been feared by city officials never materialized. The thousands of ticketholders began filing in early and encountered few problems, and traffic was actually considered by police to be lighter than normal. An estimate of up to 700,000 gawkers turned out to be about 1,000.

The city of Los Angeles set up a Web site to allow fans to contribute money to help the city pay for the memorial, which was estimated to cost $1.5 million to $4 million. AEG, the event promoter behind the memorial, has not addressed whether it will give money for the effort, but did contribute $1 million to the city after it staged a victory parade for the Los Angeles Lakers last month.

It was not clear what will happen to Jackson’s body. The Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills cemetery, where a private service was held, is the final resting place for such stars as Bette Davis, Andy Gibb, Freddie Prinze, Liberace and recently deceased David Carradine and Ed McMahon.

But Jackson’s brother Jermaine has expressed a desire to have him buried someday at Neverland, his estate in Southern California.

The ceremony ended with Jackson’s family on stage, amid a choir, singing “Heal the World.”

“All around us are people of different cultures, different religions, different nationalities,” Rev. Smith said as he closed the service. “And yet the music of Michael Jackson brings us together.”