Former President Bill Clinton will lead a group of seven persons who will deliver eulogies for the late boxing icon Muhammad Ali, whose funeral will take place Friday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky., Ali's birthplace.
Also scheduled to delivered eulogies are Lonnie Ali, his wife of 29 years; his daughter, Maryum Ali; journalist Bryant Gumbel; actor/comedian Billy Crystal; King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Ali, 74, a three-time heavyweight champion, died Friday in a Phoenix hospital of septic shock. He had been hospitalized on May 30 with respiratory issues. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease since 1984.
Clinton and Ali were long-time friends and Clinton gave Ali the Presidential Citizens Medal at the White House.
Clinton released a statement on Saturday in which he said he "watched [Ali] grow from the brash self-confidence of youth and success into a manhood full of religious and political convictions that led him to make tough choices and live with the consequences."
Lonnie Ali was the fourth of Ali’s four wives. They had been longtime friends in Louisville and married on Nov. 19, 1986. Maryum is Ali's oldest daughter and was born to his second wife, Khalilah. Maryum is an author and wrote the book, "I Shook Up the World: The Incredible Life of Muhammad Ali," in 2004.
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