Whitney Houston was buried Sunday in a brief private ceremony in New Jersey, the end of a weekend that saw the pop star's family and friends gather at a star-studded funeral to mourn her loss while celebrating her career.
Fans and onlookers gathered in several places along the route the motorcade took from a Newark funeral home to the cemetery about 20 miles away in Westfield, where Houston was buried next to her father, who died in 2003. The 48-year-old singer died Feb. 11 in a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel; the cause of death has yet to be determined.
On Saturday, she was mourned at an invitation-only funeral at the church in Newark where she sang in the choir as a child. She was remembered by some of the biggest names in music: Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys sang, and recording industry mogul Clive Davis was among those who spoke, as was Kevin Costner, Houston's co-star in "The Bodyguard."
The funeral was closed to fans, who were not allowed within blocks of the church. Still, many came to Newark to take part in what ways they could, some from as far as Miami and Washington, D.C.
Fans gathered again near the funeral home Sunday morning, and some even slowly ran alongside the hearse as it began the journey to Houston's gravesite. "To be here at her home-going is an honor and a blessing," said Barbara Davis, 53, of Newark, who arrived at 8:30 a.m., hoping to see Houston's final trip.
Dench struggles with failing sightJudi Dench is battling to save her sight. The actress said in an interview that she has been diagnosed with macular degeneration, an eye condition that can cause blindness, and that her eyesight is already so bad that she can't read her own scripts. Dench, 77, told London's Daily Mirror that she is relying on friends and family to keep her up to speed with her lines. "It's usually my daughter or my agent or a friend, and actually I like that because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind," she said. "The most distressing thing is in a restaurant in the evening I can't see the person I'm having dinner with." Dench won an Academy Award for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love" and has played intelligence boss M in the James Bond series.
SMART'S EARLY WEDDING: Onetime kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart married her boyfriend, Matthew Gilmour, in a private ceremony Saturday at a Mormon temple in Hawaii. The wedding occurred several months ahead of schedule, and Smart's spokesman said it "was the best way to avoid significant distraction" that a wedding in Utah would have brought.
