Michael Jackson's coffin (Photo: Harrison Funk/Associated Press)
By Phyllis Pollack
This report was written at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Michael Jackson's funeral will be held this evening at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Reporters at the cemetery are awaiting the arrival of the Jackson family and other attendees.
Despite temperatures nearing one hundred degrees, the atmosphere where Examiner and other media are entrenched at the cemetery is relatively calm and relaxed.
Jackson will be entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn. A book that was released in 2006, Forest Lawn: The First Hundred Years, details the historic cemetery that is resting place of many Hollywood stars. It is available for purchase through the cemetery.
The history of the Great Mausoleum where Jackson will be entombed is as extraordinary as one would expect as a final resting place for Jackson.
Construction of the Great Mausoleum had begun in 1917 on a hillside overlooking green lawns. Its architectural inspiration came from the world-famous and beautiful Campo Santo in Genoa, Italy. Behind the beauty is extraordinary-nary strength. In the Great Mausoleum's eleven terraces, there is enough steel and concrete to erect a seventy-story office building. All the reinforced concrete supporting walls are of one piece, with massive foundation caissons that pierce the rock to depths ranging from fifteen to thirty-five feet. The crypts are monolithic, with walls and floors of reinforced concrete, forming a single piece. Azalea Terrace was the first constructed and received its first entombment in 1919, although its official dedication was May 2, 1920. The other terraces in the Great Mausoleum are Begonia, Coleus, Dahlia, Evergreen, Fuchsia, Gardenia, Holly, Iris, and Jasmine, crowned by Memorial Terrace, which was completed in 1931.
The main entrance to the Great Mausoleum is marked by a Gothic tower more than 100 feet high, adjacent to a beautifully landscaped forecourt. Here a stone tablet twenty-eight feet high and twenty- five feet wide proclaims The Builder's Creed. A marble statue of a little boy and girl gaze wide-eyed upon it. Opposite, in its own small courtyard, is a figure of Jesus surrounded by children, carved in white marble by Italian sculptor Vincenzo Jerace. The title of this tableau is Jesus' own words: "For of such is the kingdom of heaven."
Over the entrance doors is carved this inscription: "We build to perpetuate the memory of our loved ones, and in the belief that life is eternal, we build forever."
For ongoing coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral reported directly from Forest Lawn Cemetery, visit the Hollywood Concerts Examiner's page.
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