BUTTE, Montana (AFP) - Hollywood icons and former sports stars joined around 5,000 mourners in an emotional farewell as motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel was laid to rest here Monday.
Actor Matthew McConaughey and former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier paid tribute at a memorial service ahead of a private funeral for Knievel, who died aged 69 on November 30 from pulmonary fibrosis.
Frazier said he and Knievel met in 1968 and quickly found common ground. "His job and my job were pretty tough jobs," said Frazier at the Butte Civic Center service.
Knievels daredevil career was at its height in the 1960s and 1970s. During that time, he captured national attention jumping buses and Mack trucks, and attempted to jump a "rocket cycle" over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
McConaughey meanwhile called Knievel a straight-talking man who was most at home while soaring through the air on his motorcycle.
"Being on the earth is sometimes a lot harder than being in the air," McConaughey said. "Coming back down could be living hell sometimes. But hes forever in flight now and he doesnt have to come back down."
Knievels open casket was surrounded with American flags and poinsettias. To the left of the Civic center stage, a white pickup truck with star-spangled decals resembling Knievels jumpsuit stood watch over the service.
Knievel maintained a lifelong connection to his hometown of Butte, a former copper mining boomtown in the Rocky Mountains dominated by a mile-and-a-half wide pit that is one of Americas largest toxic waste sites.
The city of 32,000, which locals refer to as "Butte, America," has for the past six years hosted a summer festival called "Evel Knievel Days."
"You dont know what this is about unless youve lived in Butte," said Butte resident Mary Lou Hanson, 69.
"Its like one big family, and weve lost a family member."
Butte native Lee Waananen said one of his favorite boyhood memories was when he and his grandfather happened upon Knievel at a local cafe.
"I thought it was neat that he was a regular Butte boy," Waananen said.
Preceding the service, several hundred spectators braved sub-freezing temperatures Sunday night to greet Knievels casket as it arrived.
Knievels casket was carried in under a night sky illuminated by red, white and blue fireworks.
Son Robbie Knievel, who followed his fathers daredevil footsteps, declared at the service: "I am not the greatest daredevil in the world. I am the son of the greatest daredevil in the world."
Following the memorial, a private burial ceremony was held. Knievel is survived by his wife Krystal, his four children from a previous marriage, and several grandchildren.
