The conversation happened shortly after Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable, degenerative illness, in the early 1990s.
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Gunnell said Ali’s body would return to Louisville within the next 24 to 48 hours and a private family service to celebrate Ali’s life will be held on Thursday.
“Our hearts are literally hurting”.
In the tributes following Muhammad Ali’s death on Friday evening, we’re reminded that this man was The Greatest for people around the world.
From the White House to Kinshasa and Uzbekistan they remembered on Saturday a sporting and cultural icon, saying there would never be another one like Muhammad Ali, “The Greatest”. He was a very courageous fighter, and rarely ducked a challenge, in or out of the ring.
“Muhammad Ali belongs to the world, but he only has one hometown”, Mayor Fischer said. He recalled Ali’s generosity in support of an anti-hunger program in the city.
Former President Bill Clinton, comedian Billy Crystal and broadcaster Bryant Gumbel are scheduled to deliver eulogies.
Ali died after spending several days in a Phoenix-area hospital, being treated for respiratory complications. “All family members were having a tough time”, he said. “He did not suffer”. Ali and his wife, Lonnie, had multiple residences around the USA, but always maintained a Louisville home. He was survived by nine children – seven daughters and two sons. To this day a giant print of the Congress of Racial Equality’s ad for their closed-circuit presentation of the first Ali-Frazier fight hangs in my apartment.
The interfaith service is expected to start at 2 p.m.at the KFC Yum!
The ceremony will be led by an imam in the Muslim tradition but will include representatives of other faiths.
“A rather large funeral procession” will wind through the streets of Louisville, passing by the Muhammad Ali Center on North Sixth Street. “Just to have a piece of the history just really makes me proud to know that my dad was a part of it”, Gray said.
It was an incredible fight: the 32-year-old seemingly being battered into submission by George Foreman, until the younger boxer had punched himself out and Ali swiftly and decisively turned the tables.
It’s easy to say – but much harder to convince millions of people around the world that you’re right.
And in 1967, when Ali famously refused to serve in the Vietnam War, he said: “Man, I ain’t got no quarrel with those Viet Cong”. “And it was his sincerity that made us become a group of one and we decided we would back him all the way and do anything we could do to bring attention to his situation and to let everybody know he was actually genuine about his position on the war based upon his religion”.
King said that Ali’s “spirit will go on forever”.
Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., was hospitalized twice in recent months.
He was outspoken, eloquent and poetic, perhaps his most famous quip being that he would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”.
“Every time I watch him fight, every time I watch him speak, he is very inspirational”, said Alex Davis, a 25-year-old dental assistant who came to the family home.
After not fighting for almost four years, he returned to the ring in 1971, when his draft refusal conviction was overturned. But we are so happy daddy is free now.
Celebrities, politicians, athletes and reporters who covered his career praised Ali for his superb work in and out of the ring. “The Greatest”, as he was known, passed away Friday evening of septic shock at the age of 74.
Twenty years on, Mayweather summarised Ali’s legacy. “Most will never come close”. Just like that girl said, he was lovely.
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Inside the Ali Center, photographs showed the range of Ali’s influence.
