Posted by REALITYTV
on Jul 1st, 2009 and filed under 
Private memorial service set for Sunday.
By Gil Kaufman
Michael Jackson
Photo: Joe Traver/ Liaison/ Getty Images
Michael Jackson’s fans will get a chance to pay their final respects to the fallen pop icon at a public viewing at his Neverland Valley Ranch on Friday.
According to CNN, Jackson’s body will be returned Thursday — via a 30-car motorcade — to the amusement park/zoo/mansion that was his home for nearly two decades, just a week after the 50-year-old singer died at a rented Los Angeles mansion.
A spokesperson for Jackson also told CNN that private memorial services for the singer will be held on Sunday, though the question of where Jackson will be buried remains unresolved.
On Monday, Jackson’s father, Joseph, refuted rumors that his son would be buried at Neverland and said that it was too early to talk about funeral plans because the family was still awaiting the results of a second autopsy.
On Tuesday, thousands of admirers gathered in New York’s Harlem neighborhood to pay their respects at the famous Apollo Theater, where Jackson performed with the Jackson 5 some 40 years ago.
Though Jackson spent much of his adult life living in the Los Angeles area, the mayor of his hometown of Gary, Indiana has asked the family to consider burying the singer there. A spokesperson for Mayor Rudy Clay told CNN that the city’s leader has been in touch with the Jackson family and is hoping that the gritty Midwestern industrial town could be Jackson’s final resting place. At the very least, Clay told Chicago radio station WGN, he expects that Jackson’s body will be taken to Gary for a memorial service he is planning next week.
“I believe that his body will lie in state in Gary, Indiana,” Clay said Tuesday. “Now, it may not happen, but I believe it will.” That memorial service is slated to take place on July 10 at the city’s U.S. Steel Works ballpark and Clay promised that it would be a memorial “fit for the prince of peace and a memorial that’s fit for Gary, Indiana’s favorite son, the greatest entertainer that ever lived.”
Should the Jackson family agree to have the singer buried there, a spokesperson for the mayor said the tomb could be near a proposed Jackson family museum and performing arts center that the city has discussed with family patriarch Joseph Jackson.
The public viewing at Neverland will likely be an emotional event for Jackson’s many fans in the U.S. and across the globe, as the secluded 2,500-acre property was off-limits to all but Jackson’s intimates during the time he lived there from 1988 to 2005.
Ownership of the ranch, renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch, was transferred to a company called Colony Capital in 2008 in a deal that allowed Jackson to hold onto the property when Colony agreed to buy the $23.5 million mortgage, according to TMZ.
Jackson took leave of Neverland — named after the fictional world in the story of Peter Pan — in 2005, following his acquittal on child-molestation charges. Aerial shots shown on CNN on Tuesday revealed that amusement park rides, train and zoo had all been removed since Jackson’s departure.
For complete coverage of the life, career and passing of the legendary entertainer, visit “Michael Jackson Remembered.”
Share your Michael Jackson memories by uploading video and comments to Your.MTV.com or joining the discussion below.
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Let me first start by saying to all you MJ haterz, keep on hating no one cares about your mean and discontented spirit or comments. Your the reason this world is full of hate and anger….besides you guys are just making Michael bigger than life…in death! Believe that!
Now this message goes out to the media I would like to know what is more important to you? Getting A STORY OUT, or getting THE STORY OUT?What is more important being THE FIRST TO GET A STORY OUT? Or is it THE FIRST TO GET THE STORY RIGHT? WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO FACTS?.. AND REAL SOURCES?
I can understand why some are so over hearing about Michael Jackson and that is because you are all in a race to be the first to break some sort of news. Well let me just say B.S. is NOT news.
Finding some woman on the street who says Michael talked to her about drugs without any credibility, to give her a national platform and sling dirt on a man who is no longer with us is by far a shocking realization of why celebrities hide away from world, and hide away from their fans.
Its not even us they are afraid of it’s you mudslinging sensationalistic perverts.People are talking about how Farrah’s death was overshadowed by the eclipse of media on Michael well I can say at least Farrah will rest in peace and no one is dissecting her every move she made in life and how much debt she left in death. At least she doesnt have a whole bunch of leaches comming out of the wood work talking bad on her for their 2 mins of fame.
I have watched every major(supposedly) News networks,slander,and defame this man and his work. These blood sucking vampires trying to suck the life out of Michael Jackson, his death and his Legacy. I can tell you we dont want to hear about all your speculations, phony revelations, or your inquries on who is his kids real father or their mother or how in debt you think Michael is.
If you take a hint and look around the world at how he touched people…those are the stories we want if your gonna continue talking about Michael stop trying to sensationalize every salacious angle you can find.THIS IS WHATS WRONG WITH OUR WORLD TODAY!
You must remember media, whether you liked him or not he was a human being!He was a son, a brother, and a father! This man was a pioneer, a musical genious, a Philanthroper, a great inspiration,this is a loss, a GREAT LOSS……this MAN has died!Have you no honor?No matter how he died,no matter how much money he had, what kind of trials and tribulation he went through in his past he has died!However in his journey with us he touched this world!There have not been many, if not anyone else to do that. So stop trying to tear him down to our level, it can never be done.Besides a mother just lost her son, 3 kids just lost the only father they know. SO SOMEONE PLEASE RISE ABOVE THE GUTTER BEFORE ITS TOO LATE TO HAVE SOME SORT OF RESPECT…SHOW AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT OF DIGNITY!
Why dont you guys take a look at the man in your mirror!
R.I.P. MJ Forever