Michael Jackson Burial: Private Finale for King of Pop

Liz Taylor, Macaulay Culkin and many others say goodbye to Michael Jackson.

ByABC News
September 2, 2009, 6:26 PM

Sept. 3, 2009— -- Elizabeth Taylor, Barry Bonds, Chris Tucker, and Quincy Jones were among the mourners who gathered outside the mausoleum where Michael Jackson was laid to rest Thursday evening at the famous Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale, Calif.

The Jackson family arrived more than an hour late to the cemetery in a 31-car procession that included five Rolls Royce Phantoms along with a police escort. His children, Paris, Prince Michael and Prince Michael II, were among the first of the family to take their seats in the front row next to their grandparents Katherine and Joe Jackson.

The former child actors and onetime friends of the singer, Macaulay Culkin and Corey Feldman, sat amongst family and friends. His ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley was also in attendance.

Debbie Rowe, the controversial mother of his children, did not attend.

The Jackson brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Randy and Marlon wore matching black suits, red ties, black armbands and single crystal-embedded gloves. When the golden coffin arrived, piled high with flowers, the brothers were the pall bearers.

Jackson's children placed a bejeweled crown suitable for the King of Pop atop the coffin.

When it was over Katherine Jackson appeared extremely weary and had to be helped to her car afterward, a person who attended the funeral told The Associated Press.

Jackson daughter Paris, said to be very composed throughout the service, wept once the casket was moved into the mausoleum.

Gladys Knight's emotional rendition of the "Our Father" hymn, closed the ceremony.

"The greatest entertainer that ever lived was laid to rest tonight, physically... but spiritually and musically he will live on forever," the Rev. Al Sharpton told reporters after leaving the service.