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CNN Live Today

Mourners Gather for Lopes Funeral

Aired May 02, 2002 - 10:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to check on Lisa Lopes' funeral now. Family members, friends and fans are gathering in suburban Atlanta. They are there to say goodbye to Lisa Lopes, and then what did you call it?

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Home-going.

KAGAN: A home-going.

HARRIS: Yes.

KAGAN: OK.

HARRIS: That's what African-Americans call services, like the one we are going to see parts of this morning or at least hear about, as a home-going. Yes.

And now, Lopes, as you know, was a member of the Grammy-winning group, TLC. She was killed in a car crash last week in Honduras. The funeral service, or home-going service, is this morning. And CNN's Kendis Gibson is joining us now live from outside the church, where the funeral or home-going is set to begin next hour -- Kendis, set the scene for us.

KENDIS GIBSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, it is set to begin within the next hour-and-a-half I would say. If you need any proof of the impact Lisa can have on people's lives, look no further than this amazing scene here. Some of these people have been lined up here just outside Atlanta for six hours. You heard her say hours. All of them fans of Lisa left-eye Lopes. The majority of them never really even knew her.

Of course, you know she is the 30-year-old, who is one-third of the group, TLC, the biggest selling female group of all time, bigger than Destiny's Child or even the Supremes for that matter. They sold more than 20 million copies of their CDs and albums in their time. Many of these people never even knew her but knew her music very well and knew some of the stuff that she has done to really impact people's lives.

Now, reality really set in about I'd say a half hour ago for many of the fans, when the casket of Lisa Lopes pulled up to the church here. It really is an amazing thing. You probably couldn't hear it from the video that we have, but many of the fans who were standing there at the time just burst into tears and started crying immediately at that moment. You can you probably hear it right now there as you take a look at the video of the casket being pulled into the church.

Many of the folks are going to be joining some good number of celebrities who will be here. Whitney Houston as well as Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men expected to sing. Prince, we are even told, might sing. It is not clear yet on that matter. But a lot of celebrities, some big names in the music world all here to pay tribute to Lisa Lopes -- Daryn, Leon.

HARRIS: Kendis, let me ask you something real quickly, as I am very familiar with that church. I don't live too far from that area. And I know that it seats some 10,000. You have got more than that out there right now probably. What's going to happen with the overflow? Will they have something set up, so that people outside can actually hear what is going on inside as well?

GIBSON: You know what? They have not set up a speaker system for folks outside. They are hoping that they will be able to get everybody else inside. Like you said though, the church does hold up to 10,000 people. A newspaper report earlier today was saying they expected 30,000 people to line up outside or inside of the church. It is not clear if we have that number right now, but as you can see, it is a pretty impressive crowd -- Leon.

HARRIS: Yes. And we are still an hour or so away, an hour-and- a-half away. Boy oh boy, what a scene there.

All right, Kendis Gibson, thank you very much. Kendis, we'll check back with you later on.

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