Hundreds of mourners gathered in this southern French town of Carry-le-Rouet this afternoon to pay their last respects to legendary US jazz and blues singer Nina Simone who died earlier this week.
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Undertakers carry the coffin of American jazz singer Nina Simone
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South African singer Ms Miriam Makeba, a close friend of Ms Simone, was among those in attendance at the funeral in the Our Lady of the Assumption church at Carry-le-Rouet, just west of the port city of Marseille.
"She was not only an artist but also a freedom fighter," Ms Makeba said before taking a seat inside the church next to Simone's 36-year-old daughter Lisa for the ceremony.
Ms Simone, who was born Eunice Waymon to a poor black family in the US state of North Carolina in 1933. She died on Monday of natural causes in Carry-le-Rouet, where she lived for the last eight years.
The singer, known as one of the last great jazz divas, was also a committed civil rights activist in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, fighting oppression as a black woman from the segregated southern states.
The funeral ceremony began with a recording of Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" ( Don't Leave me), which Ms Simone had incorporated into her repertoire.
"We were the greatest and I love you," read a message from British pop star Elton John, nestled in an arrangement of yellow roses on the church's altar.
Ms Simone is to be cremated later today in Marseille, withonly her immediate family present. At her request, family members will spread her ashes in several African countries, Collados said.
AFP