Fans flock to city where Michael Jackson grew up to celebrate life of pop icon

Thousands show up for event in Jackson’s hometown

GARY, Ind. — The city where Michael Jackson spent the first 11 years of his life bade farewell to the late pop icon Friday evening as several thousand people showed up to watch performers sing and dance to his hits.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said 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,” Clay said to the more than 6,000 people gathered at the Steel Yard, Gary’s minor league baseball park.

Kellee Patterson, the first black Miss Indiana in 1971, was the first singer on stage and performed “Gone Too Soon,” a song Jackson 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. Jackson became friends with White.

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

Some who knew 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.

Organizers said more than 30 members of Jackson’s family, including his father, Joe Jackson, attended the event.

The Jacksons moved from Gary, located 30 miles southeast of Chicago, after the Jackson 5 recorded their first album in 1969. Streams of fans have visited the Jacksons’ former two-bedroom home in Gary since the pop star’s death last month.

Peter Mata, 33, a bill collector from Streator, Ill., was first in line at the ballpark before Friday’s memorial celebration. He drove 100 miles with his 14-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son and arrived on Thursday night.

“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.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended Friday’s memorial celebration, said during a news conference beforehand that he hopes the pop star’s life can provide inspiration to the children of Gary.

“I want young people in Gary not to just dance like Michael, you may never be able to achieve that, but study like Michael. Be focused like Michael. Be disciplined like Michael. Get the best of your gifts like Michael,” he said.