The world will likely be watching on Friday as Muhammad Ali is laid to rest in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. A private ceremony will be held on Thursday for family, followed by a ceremony on Friday to “allow anyone that is there from the world to say goodbye” according to a statement by the family.
An interfaith ceremony on Friday will be highlighted by a variety of speakers, including President Bill Clinton, comedian Billy Crystal, and news personality Bryant Gumbel. ABC news notes vthat Clinton spoke fondly of Ali in California on Saturday, noting the fighter’s nearly aborted appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics as a defining moment:
Once the most graceful, powerful athlete in the world, with his hands shaking, holding on, he did his job,” Clinton said. “And in the very end he was actually astonishingly good humored about the burden of his later years. So by the time he died, who he was as a person was greater than his legend.”
The service on Friday will be followed by a procession through the streets of Louisville, passing the fighter’s old neighborhood and a street that carries his name before laying him to rest at the Cave Hill cemetery according to family spokesman Bob Gunnell:
“This entire service was his specific request,” Gunnell said. “He truly loved all people.”
The service itself will be streamed online around the world, allowing those who can’t attend in person to experience the event. Surely many more thoughts and tributes will arrive before then.
(Via ABC News / BBC)