Thousands mourn Jackson in Indiana

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 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, 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 Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"I figured I'd do the next best thing and pay my respects here in Gary," said Greg Packer, 45, of Huntington, N.Y. "I wanted to experience this live with other Michael Jackson fans."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended Friday's memorial, 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.

Separately, a guardianship hearing for Jackson's three children has been delayed for a week to give the singer's mother and ex-wife time to reach an agreement, an attorney said Friday.

For the second time, Katherine Jackson and Deborah Rowe joined to seek a delay in a hearing that could decide who gets custody of the pop superstar's children.

Katherine Jackson will remain the temporary guardian of her son's three children, who range in ages from 7 to 12.

Court records show a judge granted the delay Friday afternoon. The hearing is now scheduled for July 20.

Attorneys for Rowe declined to comment on Friday. Requests to interview Rowe have also been denied.

Rowe has not indicated in court filings that she intends to seek custody. She is the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as 12-year-old Prince Michael, and 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.

The youngest child, 7-year-old Prince Michael II, was born to a surrogate mother who has never been identified.

In a will signed in 2002, Michael Jackson stated he wanted his mother to care for his children if he died. Rowe was not given any role in the will.