DETROIT - Two vaults filled with stuffed animals, photos and other items that were put outside Detroit's Motown Historical Museum in memory of Michael Jackson were buried Friday at a cemetery connected to many of the Motor City's musical elite.
"Detroit was where he was able to capture that star, hold it in his hand and put it in his heart and become who he became," John Mason, a radio personality and Detroit Pistons announcer said at a brief remembrance at the Woodlawn Cemetery.
Police led a small funeral procession that included two hearses packed with items from the museum to the cemetery where there were two donated plots, vaults and a granite headstone engraved with a tribute to Jackson. About 40 people attended the ceremony.
Mason said the hundreds of people that gave flowers, letters, cards, photos and other items to a temporary memorial outside the Motown museum wanted to share "pieces of our love for Michael."
Many felt "as if a family member . . . had died without us having a chance to say goodbye," he said.
Tracy Fowlkes-Elijah, area director for Woodlawn Cemetery, suggested to museum officials that the items be buried at the cemetery because of its link to Motown and she wanted to see the mementoes treated with respect.
"There (were) people there at the museum tending to this shrine . . . every day, fixing it," she said. "It's no different than when you see somebody that gets killed in a car accident and you see a shrine at that corner. People go where they feel they can memorialize."
The 50-year-old Jackson died June 25 in California. He signed to Motown Records in the late 1960s with his brothers as the Jackson 5.
Woodlawn is the final resting place for several high-profile musicians and public figures, including Rosa Parks, three original members of the Four Tops, Temptations lead singer David Ruffin and family members of Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder.
