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Funeralizing Mahalia

By Charles-Gene McDaniel

"I don't like to see you all so dry," the Rev. John Thurston admonished the thousands who attended the service for the queen of the gospel singers. "You might as well take off your gloves if you're going to funeralize Mahalia Jackson." The pastor, a friend of the singer, spoke at midpoint in a service which had been anything but staid. His admonition made it even livelier as more "amens" and "hallelujahs" rang out in the theater at McCormick Place on Chicago's lakefront. "Mahalia would make the mayor shout," Mr. Thurston said.

The mayor to whom he referred was Richard J. Daley of Chicago, who sat on the platform with other notable personalities who came to pay tribute to his friend Mahalia Jackson. he, in turn, was paid tribute with applause and "amens" from the congregation after warm words of praise from the Rev. Leon Jenkins, pastor of Mahalia's church, the Greater Salem Missionary Baptist. Mayor Daley did not shout -- at least not out loud -- but Mahalia's memory did, indeed, evoke shouts of joy and praise to God and Jesus Christ from just about everybody else.

These words are from "Move On Up a Little Higher," the song so special to Mahalia, and the one she sang so movingly at the August 1963 civil rights demonstration in Washington. She laid down that burden Jan 27. when she died, at age 60, of heart failure following abdominal surgery. She had been in ill health for some time. In his invocation the Rev. C.L. Franklin of Detroit, father of Aretha Franklin, prayed: "We didn't come here to cry today . . . we came here to rejoice, for we know now she laid her heavy burden down. . . . We acknowledge and hail that she has moved on up a little higher."

Although mayor Daley kept his Irish catholic funeral reserve, his tribute to Mahalia emphasized the joy in her life. people love Mahalia Jackson, he said, "because every song she sang was an expression of life -- with its joys and its sorrows. Every song she sang was a story of faith. She herself wanted only to make a joyful song unto the Lord. And to this she dedicated her life." People everywhere responded to her love, the mayor continued, "and this was her reward -- having made life more beautiful and joyous for those of us here on earth."

I

It was Mayor Daley who asked that the funeral be moved from Mahalia's home church, which seats 800 to the 5,000-seat theater. Even that hall was not large enough. All seats were filled an hour before the service started on a cold, overcast Feb. 2. Many stood in the side aisles while hundreds more remained in the lobby to listen to the two-hour service over a public address system. many at the service had not known her, had never seen her in person, but they -- like the presidents, queens and kings and the one pope before whom she appeared -- loved and admired this New Orleans -- born onetime laundress and scrubwoman whose unmatched voice brought her international fame.

Thousands more had filed past the coffin during the days before the funeral as the body lay in state in the church on Chicago's south side. At times the line stretched outside the building, and many waited in the cold for hours in order to pay her tribute. Another service in New Orleans on Feb. 4 drew an additional 5,000. the burial was in Metairie, just outside the city.

At the Chicago funeral the body lay in a polished wooden coffin lined with pale blue, surrounded with bouquets of red roses and topped with a garland of white orchids. the Greater Salem choir, with which Mahalia got her start as a singer, set the tone for the service with its opening selection, a lively "leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Some of the singers wept during the service, as did Mr. Jenkins and others, but joy invariably transcended the grief.

Mahalia had devoted herself to sacred gospel songs, abjuring the blues and never going into nightclubs where they were sung. But she l loved the singers of these secular songs -- just as she loved everybody -- and was loved by them. Sammy Davis, Jr., spoke of her as "more than just a great artist -- she was "something special." And Ella Fitzgerald, in tears, described her as "one of our greatest ambassadors of love . . . this wonderful woman who only comes once in a lifetime."

Davis read a message given him by pres. Richard Nixon, who spoke of her as an "artist without peer" and as a "majestic ambassador of good will." The president also said, "Millions of ears will miss the sound of that great, rich voice making a joyful noise unto the Lord."

Robert Anderson sang Mahalia's song, "Move On Up a little Higher," and her accompanists, organist Willie Webb and pianist Mildred Falls, played. Dolores Campbell sang "He's Gonna Call me Home." And the audience waved and swayed as Memphis singer Bradley sang a deeply moving "I'll Fly Away." Afterward he asked everyone to turn to the person next to him, shake hands and say, "I love you." Everyone did.

II

Mahalia was an early supporter of Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and served on the organization's board of directors. At the funeral Dr. King's widow, Coretta, spoke of "my dear friend, your friend, a friend to mankind, Mahalia Jackson, black, proud, beautiful, extraordinarily gifted as a singer and a performer, singing the songs of her people in her own unique way. She sang a universal language, for she expressed in her songs, which were deeply rooted in the black experience, the joys, the sorrows, the sufferings, the longings and aspirations -- yes, the desire for freedom for her people."

In his eulogy Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, remarked that Mahalia had "scrubbed floors, but she scrubbed them well." Even after she became famous, he remembered, "she would come to revival meetings and rejoice and sing and shout with everybody." Wherever she appeared, Dr. Jackson said, "when she finished singing, there was no hatred. We felt like kinfolks under the banner of truth."

Aretha Franklin ended the service by singing for Mahalia one of the songs she loved so well, "Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on."

Source: The Christian Century (1 March 1972)

posted 2 November 2007