MACON, Georgia (AP) – Legions of fans lined the streets of Macon, Georgia, on Saturday to honor music legend Gregg Allman as he’s carried to his final resting place in the same cemetery where he and his band members used to hang out and write songs amid the tombstones.
The Saturday afternoon service is private, with only about 100 people expected to attend inside a small chapel. Mourners filed past white columns into the peach-colored building as five black stretch limousines waited outside.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter confirmed Friday that he would attend, honoring The Allman Brothers Band keyboardist who drew large crowds to campaign events during his 1976 presidential race.
Police closed downtown streets to accommodate the crush of fans coming to watch Allman’s body being taken from the chapel to Rose Hill Cemetery, where he will be buried near his late brother, guitarist Duane Allman.
Their band began its rise to fame in the central Georgia city 90 miles south of Atlanta about five decades ago, and used to write songs while hanging out in the cemetery, Alan Paul wrote in “One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band.”