ALI FUNERAL | Funeral procession carrying Ali’s body makes way through Louisville streets

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Muhammad Ali made his final journey through his hometown today – past the little pink house where he grew up and the museum that bears his name – as thousands of mourners along the route pumped their fists and chanted, "Ali! Ali!" for the former heavyweight champion of the world known simply as The Greatest.

A hearse bearing Ali's cherry-red casket, draped in an Islamic tapestry, arrived at Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery in a long line of black limousines after a 19-mile drive via Muhammad Ali Boulevard that was both somber and exuberant.

He was to be laid to be rest around midday – his headstone inscribed simply "Ali" – in a private graveside ceremony, followed in the afternoon by a grand memorial service attended by more than 15,000 people, including former President Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal.

Ali, the most magnetic and controversial athlete of the 20th century, died last Friday at 74 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

The casket was loaded into a hearse outside a funeral home as a group of pallbearers that included former boxers Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and actor Will Smith filed out, along with Ali's nine children, his wife, two of his ex-wives and other family members.