Private farewell to James Brown
2006-12-30 07:47
North Augusta - A day after thousands bade a rousing farewell to singer James Brown at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theatre in New York, friends and relatives gathered Friday for a more humble memorial service near the place the "Godfather of Soul" called home.
The gold casket bearing Brown's body was brought into the Carpentersville Baptist Church about 14:30 (1930 GMT). Boxing promotor Don King, wearing a red, white and blue tie, was right behind.
The Rev Al Sharpton, who had accompanied his close friend's body to New York and back, was also on hand, as was comedian Dick Gregory.
As the hour of the ceremony neared, several hundred friends, relatives and onlookers waited outside the small, red brick church in a neighbourhood of dilapidated homes - some with boarded -up windows - on a street just inside the South Carolina side of the border with Georgia.
Friday's ceremony marked the second day of farewell services for Brown.
On Thursday, thousands of people danced and sang in the streets outside the Apollo Theatre in a raucous celebration of the music legend's life as his body was displayed on the stage where he made his 1956 debut.
Brown, who died of heart failure Christmas morning at 73, lay in repose in the Harlem theatre that helped catapult him to fame and was the setting for a thrilling live album in 1962.
Earlier, Brown's body was carried to the theatre through the streets on a majestic white carriage drawn by two white horses.
Black and proud
Hundreds of fans followed behind the caisson singing the chorus of Brown's anthem, Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud.
Another public viewing of the singer's body will be held on Saturday at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia, his boyhood home town.
To many, Brown was more than just an energetic performer. As Norman Brand of Harlem waited for the Thursday procession to begin, the 55-year-old recalled hearing Say it Loud for the first time in his native Alabama.
"It really changed the attitude of most black people. It was like a wake-up call. Before that, if you were called black, it was like an insult," Brand said. "Just one song and one word can change a whole situation."
- AP