Religious and political leaders of many stripes joined the sports world and tens of thousands of ordinary mourners today to bid farewell to Muhammad Ali, the boxing champion who jolted America with his showmanship and won worldwide admiration as a man of principle.
Ali, a once-controversial convert to Islam who lost three years of his boxing career for refusing US military service during the Vietnam War, died a week ago aged 74.
Fans chanting "Ali!" and throwing flowers lined the streets of Louisville, Kentucky, for the funeral procession.
Ali's hearse snaked through the city, pausing for a huge crowed outside his boyhood home, en route to a cemetery for a private burial beneath a headstone reading 'Ali'.
City officials estimated 100,000 people came out to honour Ali, many travelling from across the country and across the world.
Some tossed flowers atop the hearse carrying his casket as part of an 18-car procession over 37 km in a memorial unlike any other in recent US history.
The Reverend Kevin W Cosby, a pastor at a Louisville church, likened Ali to other ground-breaking black athletes who advanced civil rights such as baseball player Jackie Robinson, boxer Joe Louis and track star Jessie Owens.
"Before James Brown said, 'I'm black and I'm proud,' Muhammad Ali said, 'I'm black and I'm pretty,'" Rev Cosby told the crowded arena, referring to the 1960s R&B singer.
"He dared to love black people at a time when black people had a problem loving themselves."
US President Barack Obama, who missed the funeral to attend his daughter Malia's high school graduation ceremony, described Ali as "an icon" and a "personal hero" who transformed "not just the world of sport, but the world as a whole".
Mr Obama and his wife Michelle sent a letter to be read at the service, where White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett - who knew Ali personally - represented the president.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who attended a Muslim funeral for Ali yesterday, cut short his visit to Louisville and did not attend today’s event.
President Erdogan's office simply said he had left the United States after a dinner to break the day's Ramadan fast.
An official in President Erdogan's office denied a report by broadcaster CNN Turk that he had wanted to lay a cloth on Ali's coffin, and had wanted the head of Turkey's religious affairs directorate to recite from the Koran, but that his wishes had been refused.
Ali's childhood home re-opened
After years of restoration to convert his childhood home into a museum, developers finally held a grand opening on 1 May.
"They (Ali's family) wanted to bring Muhammad here for one last visit but his health just wasn't permitting it, unfortunately," said co-owner George Bochetto, a former Pennsylvania boxing commissioner.
Visitors this week waited up to 90 minutes to tour the modest pink house, and police estimated 1,500 people lined the small residential street today to see the man known as "The Greatest" come home one last time.
"This is where he started," said former heavyweight boxer and actor Randall "Tex" Cobb. "He didn't start in a gym. He didn't start as Muhammad Ali. He started in this house right here."
Willie B Palmer, 75, said he graduated high school with Ali, who was training for the Olympics when he graduated Central High School in 1960.
Ali would train by jogging the bus route to the school.
"Sometimes he'd be there before the bus," Mr Palmer said.
