The Latest: Bill Clinton say Ali wrote his own story

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Latest on the memorial service for Muhammad Ali (all times local):

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6:30 p.m.

The memorial for Muhammad Ali has come to an end.

The star-studded service ended with a moment of silence and a closing prayer. His family walked slowly out of the building and is heading for a private ceremony at the Muhammad Ali Center a few blocks away.

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6:10 p.m.

"Being a man of faith, he realized he would never be in full control of his life. Something like Parkinson's could come along," Clinton said. "But being free, he realized that life was filled with multiple choices. It is the choices that Muhammad Ali made are what brought us all here today."

Clinton noted that Ali never felt self-pity because of the Parkinson's disease he battled for three decades, and said he continued to give himself to the world as "a universal soldier for our common humanity" long after his diagnosis.

"I think Ali decided at a very young age to write his own story," Clinton said. "He never got credit for being as smart as he was."

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5:50 p.m.

And, Gumbel says, he did it without changing his nature or compromising his principles.

"He gave us levels of strength and courage we didn't even know we had. Hating people of color is wrong, Ali said, and it doesn't matter who does the hate. It's just plain wrong."

Gumbel lamented that the three-time heavyweight champion had finally gone down.

"And for once he won't get up. Not this time. He is down."

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Billy Crystal drew fast laughs when he took to the stage at Muhammad Ali's memorial service.

"We're at the halfway point," he joked. The memorial has been underway for more than 2½ hours after a morning full of remembrances.

He joked that he was clean shaven when the day's activities began.

Crystal cracked everyone up with his career-making impersonation of a boastful, fast-talking Ali — and his imitation of Ali's foil, sportscaster Howard Cosell — and rhapsodized about Ali's charisma, outspokenness and talent.

He called the boxing great "a tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air, a fantastic combination of power and beauty.

"Ali forced us to take a look at ourselves. This brash young man thrilled us, angered us, confused us, challenged us, ultimately became a silent messenger of peace and taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people and not walls."

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5:30 p.m.

Muhammad Ali's widow, Lonnie Ali, took the stage at her husband's memorial to thunderous chants.

In her first public remarks since his death, she talked about how Ali wanted to be remembered after his passing.

She reminded those listening that his message still resonates. She says he was prepared to sacrifice all he had, all that he was, to follow his soul.

She also recalled the Louisville police officer who first taught a young Ali how to box when his bicycle was stolen when he was 12.

"Joe Martin handed young Cassius Clay the keys to a future in boxing he could scarcely have imagined.

"America must never forget that when a cop and an inner-city kid talk to each other, then miracles can happen," she told the crowd to sustained applause.

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Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett has read a letter from President Barack Obama at Muhammad Ali's memorial in which Obama praised Ali for inspiring "a young mixed kid with a funny name to have the audacity to believe he could be anything, even the president of the United States."

Obama was unable to make the trip because of his daughter Malia's high school graduation. Jarrett said she was chosen to go instead because she knew Ali for 45 years.

Obama's letter said Ali was bigger than America, and it noted the world flocked to the champ "because Muhammad Ali was America. Brash. Defiant. Pioneering. Never tired. Always game to test the odds. He was our most basic freedoms: religion, speech, spirit. He embodied our ability to invent ourselves. His life spoke to our origins of slavery and discrimination and the journey he traveled shocked our consciousness and led us on a roundabout path toward salvation.

"And like America, he was always very much a work in progress. We do him a disservice to gauze up his story, to sand down his rough edges, to talk only of floating like butterflies and stinging like bees. Ali was a radical, even in a radical of times. A loud and proud and unabashedly black voice in a Jim Crow world."

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Two rabbis have spoken at the interfaith memorial service for Muhammad Ali, with one of them receiving four standing ovations and leaving the crowd chanting, "Ali! Ali! Ali!"

Rabbi Michael Lerner gave a fiery speech in which he declared that American Jews stand in solidarity with Muslims, saying they will not tolerate politicians demonizing an entire religion by the actions of a few.

He says Ali stood up to an immoral war and risked fame and fortune to speak truth to power.

"How do we honor Muhammad Ali?" he asked. "And the answer the way to honor Muhammad Ali is to be Muhammad Ali today."

He listed progressive causes such as ending war, leveling the gap between the rich and the poor and eliminating racism in the criminal justice system.

He referred to the next president as "she." The crowd went wild and the camera found former President Bill Clinton, husband of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the audience, smiling and clapping.

Later, Rabbi Joe Rapport of Louisville said Ali was "the heart of our city ... and that heart beats still."

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4:05 p.m.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch says he first met Muhammad Ali 28 years ago when the boxing great visited the Utah Republican at his Senate office.

Hatch says he once took Ali to a children's hospital in Salt Lake City, where they visited with downtrodden children.

"Ali held those kids and looked into their eyes. They would grin from ear to ear," Hatch said. "The nurses were astounded. Never before had they seen someone who had connected so immediately and profoundly with these sick children.

"He may have been a tough and tenacious man in the ring, but he was compassionate and tender around those who he loved."

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3:40 p.m.

Cosby was among several faith leaders who spoke at Ali's memorial service on Friday in Louisville. He likened Ali to such racial barrier-breakers as Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson.

Cosby says that before James Brown declared "I'm black and I'm proud," Ali proclaimed "I'm black and I'm pretty."

He says the boxing great "dared to affirm the power and capacity of African-Americans."

Cosby says Ali infused African-Americans with a "sense of somebodiness."

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The interfaith memorial service for Muhammad Ali has begun at a sports arena packed with celebrities, politicians and athletes.

The crowd applauded as former President Bill Clinton, one of several people set to give a eulogy, arrived.

As the interfaith service got underway, the crowd of up to 15,000 burst into applause and chanted, "Ali! Ali!" when a Muslim religious leader welcomed the audience to "the home of the people's champ."

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2:55 p.m.

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2:45 p.m.

An announcer has asked people to find their seats so the public interfaith memorial service for Muhammad Ali can begin. Many seats are still empty.

Boxing promoter Don King and soccer player David Beckham are among those in attendance.

The service at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville follows a private graveside service at Cave Hill Cemetery. A Muslim prayer service was held Thursday at the Kentucky Exposition Center.

2:30 p.m.

Celebrities have begun showing up at the memorial service for Muhammad Ali.

Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, rapper/actor Common, and former NFL Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis pulled up to a VIP side entrance at the KFC Yum! Center on Friday afternoon. They were greeted by cheers from onlookers standing about three rows deep.

That was only the beginning of the celeb parade, as producer/director Spike Lee, NBC "Today" host Matt Lauer, NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown and NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar arrived soon after. Most exited their limos away from fans and the media, but Abdul-Jabbar did step out and wave to the crowd, unable to hide his 7-foot-2 frame.

Former boxers Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and actor Will Smith served as pallbearers.

2 p.m.

The private graveside service for Muhammad Ali at Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery has been completed.

Next up is the interfaith memorial service at the KFC Yum! Center, where former President Bill Clinton, actor Billy Crystal and TV journalist Bryant Gumbel are scheduled to speak.

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1 p.m.

Spectators stepped into the street to touch the flower-strewn hearse as it entered the cemetery. Someone threw flowers to Hana Ali, Muhammad's daughter, as she rode in a limousine in the procession.

Gerald Wayne Jacobs wept openly as the motorcade went by. He cried, "The champ is gone, the champ is gone!"

"He was a good man I tell you, he didn't forget where he came from. I wasn't going to miss this for the world."

Kevin York also held back tears as the hearse drove by over a bed of rose petals at the gates to the cemetery. York held an Ali poster that the champ signed in the early '90s when York spotted him walking alone on a downtown Louisville street.

"He was a friend to anybody. I'm so sorry he's gone I wish he could've kept going," York said as he fought back tears.

12:45 p.m.

The starting time for the memorial service for Muhammad Ali has been pushed back.

The service had been scheduled to start at 2 p.m. But with the funeral procession still underway at 12:30 p.m., organizers at the KFC Yum! Center said the interfaith memorial service wouldn't start for at least two more hours.

The funeral procession didn't get begin until nearly 90 minutes after its scheduled start time. The hearse is headed to Cave Hill Cemetery, where Ali will be buried.

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Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield says the massive turnout to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali is proof of Ali's role as a unifier.

Holyfield said Friday that Ali wanted the world to come together. He says Ali is "probably up above, looking down and seeing all the different races come together." Holyfield says Ali used his fame as a boxer to promote his humanitarian ideals.

Holyfield is among hundreds of celebrities and dignitaries paying homage to Ali as the three-time heavyweight champion is laid to rest in his hometown of Louisville.

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Noon

With the cemetery closed to the public for the day, spectators sat in lawn chairs lining the street in front of Cave Hill. Some people sprinkled rose petals in front of a cemetery entrance. A little girl, 2-year-old Lena Worthington, was wearing big purple boxing gloves.

Ali chose the cemetery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, as his final resting place a decade ago. Its 130,000 graves represent a who's who of Kentucky, including Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland Sanders.

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11:50 a.m.

Hundreds lined the rail at Louisville's Belvedere plaza, overlooking Interstate 64, just next to the Muhammad Ali Center.

The motorcade rolled to a stop.

"Ali! Ali! Ali!" the crowd screamed. People jumped and waved. Down below, the windows of limos rolled down and arms stretched out to wave back.

Edward Fletcher swears he saw Will Smith wave at him.

The procession paused on the interstate for one minute in the shadow of the museum that will stand as a lasting tribute to The Louisville Lip's legacy.

"My heart is racing," said Mona Fletcher, Edward's wife. "I feel like I should cry, they'd be tears of joy. What an honor, what a blessing I was able to witness this great moment."

Edward, a 62-year-old retired firefighter, said he admired Ali since he was a young boy. Ali taught him to be strong and have conviction, to believe in his own greatness and to rely on God.

Alan Hensley, from Indiana, was standing against the rail when he saw Iyanna behind him struggling to see. He offered her his spot against the rail.