Runion decided Sunday was a good time to drive from Shelbyville with his sons to visit the Muhammad Ali Center.
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The prayer service was open to the community.
“If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest”, Dylan wrote of Ali, who died Friday at the age of 74, on his website. Muhammad Ali impacted millions of people around the world throughout his life, including Carey.
The body of the former prize fighter, who died in Arizona after suffering for decades from Parkinson’s syndrome, was expected to be returned within the next two days to Louisville, where flags were lowered at city hall in his honor.
“The champ would have been very proud of his family”, Gunnell said.
Ali held firm to his beliefs and eventually earned accolades as a civil rights activist.
He will be buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
“He hit me with a quick one-two, knocked me down to the canvas and my whole life changed”, Foreman told CNN of the epic “Rumble”.
The three-time heavyweight world champion’s passing will be marked by family and friends on Thursday, before a huge, emotional funeral service on the Friday, including fans and the world’s press. Now, his memorial service has been announced.
Before a private burial Ali’s hearse will be driven on a 19-mile procession though the streets where he grew up and past his modest childhood home.
The doctor recalled a story from many years ago when Ali visited an elderly man in a nursing home, who mistook him for another great boxer, Joe Louis.
“I just started to flash back at the times my father would have all these different boxing films and interviews of Muhammad Ali in our house, it’s just a real sad moment for me”, Carey said.
Among those scheduled to pay tribute to Ali at Friday’s public service are former President Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal.
Ali’s funeral will occur the following day at another ceremony at the KFC Yum!
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Lieberman said he didn’t think boxing contributed to Ali’s contraction of Parkinson’s disease but he couldn’t be “a hundred percent” certain.
