MICHAEL JACKSON LAID TO REST ,

Friends and family came out last night to finally lay to rest Michael Jackson.

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Jackson’s backup dancers served as ushers. His brothers, wearing black armbands and a sequined glove on one hand, 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 – part of a private, intimate gathering in contrast to the thousands who attended Jackson’s internationally telecast memorial service at Los Angeles’ Staples Center.

Lisa Marie Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin and Chris Tucker said their goodbyes.

Jackson’s three children then placed a crown on their father’s coffin to mark his status as the King of Pop.

After a prayer by Pastor Lucius Smith and a gospel number sung by Gladys Knight, 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, the brothers carried the casket to the Grand Mausoleum, where at 9:43 p.m. Jackson entered his final resting place.

Afterwards, his family issued statement 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."


Jackson's final resting spot will reside in a building is patterned on 13th-century Italian architecture, with the walls and floors of each crypt constructed of reinforced concrete.

The Jackson family provided live video images of the ceremony up to the removal of the casket from the hearse. After that, television stations carried images from news helicopters hovering over a 3,000-foot minimum altitude imposed by authorities during the funeral.

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.’

Also in attendance was Lisa Marie Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin and Chris Tucker.