Family, Friends & Fans Say Goodbye To Aaliyah

NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - A glass-paneled carriage towed by a pair of tan horses brought actress-singer Aaliyah's silver coffin from the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on Manhattan's Upper West Side to the St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church a short distance away on Friday morning (August 31).
More than a 1,000 fans gathered outside the church to catch a glimpse of singer's casket. Celebrities like singer-actor Usher, Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Gladys Knight, Mike Tyson, Delroy Lindo, and producer Joel Silver, who cast Aaliyah in Romeo Must Die, came out to pay their last respects to the 22-year-old star, who died in a plane crash last weekend.

After the private church ceremony, which included approximately 100 guests, the singer's mother Diane Haughton, as she tearfully stood next to the Aaliyah's casket, released a single white dove into the sky. Another 21 white doves were released immediately thereafter for a total of 22--one representing each year of Aaliyah's short life. Fans outside of the church sang Aaliyah's "One In A Million" as the singer's coffin was loaded into a traditional hearse and brought to an undisclosed location in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, thousands of the singer's fans gathered across town at Cipriani's Restaurant to pay their respects for the fallen star. The line was around the corner at lunchtime as fans attempted to get into the restaurant for the public memorial service. Cipriani's was set up with huge video screens that played looped videotapes of the star's performance, videos, and select interviews. The public memorial service was scheduled to run from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. ET.

Aaliyah's family has set up a memorial fund that will be dedicated to aiding in the ongoing fight against breast cancer. The funds raised will be split between the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program and the beneficiaries of the Breathe Concert on October 27, 2001. The Breathe Concert is specifically geared towards raising funds for patient support of underprivileged women with cancer. Donations to the memorial fund should be mailed to: Aaliyah Memorial Fund, c/o Entertainment Industry Foundation - Attention: Merrily Newton, 11132 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 401, Studio City, California 91604.