Thousands Attend Gary Event

Gary (Indiana, USA), where Michael Jackson spent the first years of his life, bade farewell to the late pop icon Friday evening as more than 6,000 people showed up to watch performers sing and dance to his hits at the Steel Yard, Gary's minor league baseball park. Organizers said more than 30 members of Jackson's family, including his father, Joe Jackson, attended the event.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said Michael Jackson had made the city known worldwide and told the crowd that he has moved on to a better place.

"He's going to put on those golden slippers and he's going to dance all over God's heaven."

Kellee Patterson, the first black Miss Indiana in 1971, was the first singer on stage and performed "Gone Too Soon," a song Michael recorded in memory of Ryan White. White, who died in 1990, contracted HIV through a blood transfusion to treat his hemophilia. He drew national attention in the 1980s when as a 13-year-old he was banned from a school near Kokomo. Michael became close friends with White and his family.

But some of the biggest applause came before the two-hour event started, when Michael Jackson's hits were playing and young children and teenagers went out to the dugout and mimicked his moves.

Some who knew Michael Jackson when his family lived in Gary spoke about what a thoughtful young man he was and recounted how the Jackson 5 once performed at Garnett Elementary School, charging students 10 cents apiece.

The Jacksons moved from Gary, located 30 miles southeast of Chicago, after the Jackson 5 recorded their first album in 1969.

Peter Mata (33) a bill collector from Streator, Ill., was first in line at the ballpark. He drove 100 miles with his 14-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son.

"I just had to come. It's Michael Jackson," he said.

Other fans said they had tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to Tuesday's service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"I figured I'd do the next best thing and pay my respects here in Gary," said Greg Packer of Hungtington, N.Y., a 45-year-old retired highway maintenance worker. "I wanted to experience this live with other Michael Jackson fans."

Source: MJFC / AP