Many celebrities joined the public, and eulogized Bernie with emotional speeches. Chris Rock, Rev. Jesse Jackson and actor Samuel L. Jackson, Mac’s costar in the upcoming flick Soul Men were among them. Eonline reports that Mac’s fellow Original Kings of Comedy : Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey and DL Hughley sat beside each other, breaking down in tears during the service. When they took the stage, however, they mixed their tears with laughter as they remembered Bernie.

Isaac Hayes, who died one day after Bernie at the age of 65 was also honored. A montage of photos and sound clips from Mac’s life and career were set to some of Isaac’s best-known songs.

Many fans arrived by chartered buses and waited hours in line for a spot in the 10,000 seat church; some even camped out overnight. Samuel L. Jackson, co-stars with Bernie and Isaac in “Soul Men,” spoke, saying he knew Mac “was having some health issues, but he always said to me every morning that he was always good.” Isaac Hayes, who died Sunday, also stars in the movie, and Hayes’ music was played during the service.
Jackson said that Bernie didn’t mind the loss of privacy that came with his fame.

“He never turned that kid down for an autograph. He always had time to shake a hand. He was always that kid from Chicago who wanted to make everybody happy and everybody laugh.

The service included the reading of condolence letters from children; from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, an Illinois senator; and from Mac’s beloved White Sox baseball team. Mac’s comedy routines were played on large video screens with off-color words bleeped out.

Outside, traffic was tied up for blocks, vendors sold memorial T-shirts for $10, and Chicago waiter Timothy Strickland manned a makeshift shrine featuring photos, including Mac’s 1971 eighth-grade basketball team picture. A sign read: “Thank you, Bernie, for showing that good people do come from Englewood.”

Mac grew up on the South Side in the Woodlawn and Englewood neighborhoods.

“This shows support … from the whole Chicago area and how much he will be missed,” said Pamela Gordon of Chicago, one of hundreds of people who lined up hours before the memorial started. “He was a good man, a beautiful husband and he was real,” she added. “And he was handsome, honey.” Vera Gordon said she came to pay tribute to the comedian who made her mother, who suffers from dementia, laugh. “She watched the `Bernie Mac Show’ every night,” Vera Gordon said of her mother, Margaret Berston, 79. “She would just sit there and laugh. You could see the sadness when I told her. I came here to represent my mother.”

Inside the church, Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daly, addressed the huge crowd, praising Mac as a man devoted to making Chicago a safer place.

“He wanted to do something personally to get children away from the life of violence. He had a heart and passion… That’s why as the king of comedy, he never lost his soul in Chicago.

The family requests that donations be made at www.berniemacfoundation.org, which aims at finding a cure for sarcoidosis.

Rest In Peace, Bernie Mac.

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USA Today is reporting that Shelby County (Memphis) Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Shular said Tuesday that paperwork filed by Hayes’ family physician, Dr. David Kraus, lists the cause of death as a stroke. Those who wish to send their condolences can mail them to 926 E. McLemore Ave. Memphis, TN. 38106-3338. This is the former location of Stax Records, now the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Soulsville Foundation, and they have promised to get them to the Hayes family.

UPDATE: Hayes was about to begin work on a new album for Stax, the soul record label he helped build to legendary status. And he had recently finished work on a movie called “Soul Men” in which he played himself, starring Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died on Saturday.

Wow. First Bernie Mac, and now “Shaft” and “Chef” from South Park icon Isaac Hayes has died at the age of 65. Fox News is reporting that at approximately 1pm Central Time, Shelby County (Memphis, Tennessee) Sheriff’s department received a call from Isaac Hayes’ wife, who found him lying unresponsive next to a treadmill at 9280 Riveredge in Shelby County.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Department arrived on the scene and C.P.R. was performed. Hayes was unresponsive, and Shelby County Fire Department and Rural Metro arrived on the scene where they took him straight to Baptist East Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:10pm. Central Time.

Family members say he had recently been treated for some medical issues, high blood pressure and possibly other problems. The treadmill was still running when Isaac was found. At this time officials do not believe foul play was involved, and everything at the scene so far indicated that Hayes’ death was natural.

Isaac performing “Shaft” live in 1973 is below.

Hayes made headlines when he left his role as Chef on South Park when the show aired the infamous episode about Tom Cruise “coming out of the closet”- a biting jab at Scientology. Isaac was a Scientologist. The soul-man was a Grammy winner for the classic theme from the movie Shaft.

Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served as both an in-house songwriter and producer with partner David Porter during the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s, Hayes became a recording artist, and recorded successful soul albums such as Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971) as the Stax label’s premier artist.

Alongside his work in popular music, Hayes was a film score composer for motion pictures. His best known work, for Shaft in 1971, earned Hayes an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards. He received a third Grammy for the album Black Moses.

In 1992, in recognition of his humanitarian work, he was crowned an honorary KING of Ghana’s Ada district! Rest In Peace, Isaac. You will be greatly missed. Say hello to Bernie Mac for us.

Here’s Isaac performing “Shaft” Live in 1973. Snarkista thinks that’s a young Jesse Jackson in the beginning! Enjoy.