LAS VEGAS — A standing ovation for B.B. King and more cheers than tears marked a family-and-friends memorial of the late blues great’s life and legacy Saturday in Las Vegas.

“B.B. was energetic, Amen?” Pastor Pamela Myrtis Mason said to open the service that drew more than 350 to the Palm Mortuary chapel.

“Amen,” they said.

King’s closed casket lay framed by an array of floral arrangements, two of his guitars named Lucille and a tapestry showing him in eyes-clenched reverie picking a note from a section of the guitar frets dubbed by followers the “B.B. King Box.”

“Why don’t you put your hands together for the King of the Blues, B.B. King!” the pastor said.

As the applause ended, granddaughter Landra Williams dubbed him “the backbone of our family King.”

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More than 10 of King’s 35 grandchildren and eight of the blues icon’s 11 surviving adult children spoke during a two-hour service that was distinct for its intimacy and notable for its lack of acrimony.

Several sang acappella versions of King classics. From Claudette King Robinson, it was, “(Someone Really Loves You) Guess Who?”

Williams, who lives in Houston, remembered her grandfather calling every woman in the family “pretty girl,” and spoiling them all, while making himself their confidante and protector.

“To everyone else, he was a legend,” she said. “But for us, he was love.”

King’s generosity was recalled by grandson Leonard King Jr., who remembered being onstage when people praising the B.B. King show got a prideful earful from his grandfather about his kin.

“His humility was almost as legendary as his music,” the grandson said.

Rock guitarists Carlos Santana and Richie Sambora also attended. “Buddy Guy and B.B. let me into the blues,” said Sambora, longtime part of the band Bon Jovi. “That’s why I’m here. He made me family.”

Other music notables are expected to attend memorials in coming days in Memphis, Tennessee, and King’s hometown of Indianola, Mississippi.

– From news service reports


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