About 2,500 people gathered Friday afternoon outside Michael Jackson's boyhood home in Gary to remember the pop icon on the anniversary of his death.
Jackson's mother, Katherine, and niece Genevieve Jackson unveiled an 8-foot black marble monument that will permanently sit in the front yard of the small clapboard home at 2300 Jackson St.
The memorial previously stood at a minor league baseball park in town until city officials and the Jackson family decided to move it to the house.
"The last year has been a hard time for the whole family," Katherine Jackson said under a sweltering sun on the front lawn of the house. "Without all of you fans, I don't think we would have made it through everything."
Genevieve Jackson, the daughter of Michael Jackson's brother Randy, called her uncle a "beacon for peace who served as a model for everyone. We miss him terribly."
Gary Mayor Rudy Clay and other city officials worked with the Jackson family to spruce up the house and turn it into a memorial. Officials said plans also are moving ahead on a museum, which has been stalled for years.
"I want to say to the Jackson family, 'Welcome home to Gary,'" said Clay.
The remembrance drew celebrities such as comedian Eddie Griffin and Greg Mathis of television's "Judge Mathis" courtroom reality show.
"I believe Michael Jackson would be grateful for this celebration, but I think he would also like us to follow what he represented, and that was love," Mathis said.
Fans from northwest Indiana and the Chicago area attended the unveiling and planned to stick around for an early-evening candlelight vigil.
The event took on a street-fair atmosphere, with vendors hawking souvenirs and Michael Jackson impersonators dancing to a medley of Jackson's hits piped through loudspeakers.
"I had to come out here today," said Carmen Aimutis, 49, of Portage. "This event is sort of like a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing since his mother and other family members are here."
