Thousands gather in Atlanta to mourn TLC's Lisa `Left Eye' Lopes

Jet, May 20, 2002

Fans began lining up at 7:00 a.m. to pay their last respects to Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, the L in the Grammy Award-winning group TLC. By the time the funeral began four hours later, thousands of fans lined the streets in the hopes of getting inside of the 10,000-seat New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA, to attend the funeral that was open to the public.

Lopes, 30, was killed when she lost control of the wheel while driving a sports utility vehicle in Honduras. An autopsy showed that she died of a fractured skull. The seven others in the vehicle, including her sister, Raina, and brother, Ronald, suffered minor injuries (JET, May 13).

TLC members Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and her husband, rapper Mack 10, and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas and her friend, singer-actor Usher, attended the services.

Other notables included Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and her husband, Bobby Brown, Antonio "LA" Reid, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin, Monica, Kelly Price, Suge Knight and Blaque.

One of Lopes' favorite songs was Shackles (Praise You) by the gospel duo Mary Mary. The group performed the song at the funeral at the request of Lopes' mother, Wanda.

Lopes' white casket was engraved in gold script. The engravement was from the rap portion she performed on the group's hit song Waterfalls: "Dreams are hopeless aspirations in hopes of coming true; believe in yourself, the rest is up to me and you."

Former Atlanta Falcons star Andre Rison attended a private memorial service. Lopes and Rison had an on-again-off again relationship for several years and made headlines in 1994 when she torched his mansion. Reportedly the two were to wed last year.

"She was my heart," Rison told WSB-TV after the service. "We're going to let her fly with wings like angels do. She's truly and definitely an angel."

Famed race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. paid tribute to Lopes during the Pontiac 400 at Richmond International Raceway. The race cars of Earnhardt, Steve Park and Michael Waltrip, all had black stripes under the left headlight. Over-the-wall pit crew members also wore stripes under their left eyes.

Earnhardt Jr., the son of late race car great Dale Earnhardt who died when his car crashed during the final lap of last year's Daytona 500, was sympathetic to Lopes' family when he learned the morgue photos of the singer had appeared on the Internet. Several newspapers and a web site wanted access to autopsy photos of Earnhardt Jr.'s father for their own independent investigations into the death of the seven-time Winston Cup champion. Earnhardt's widow, Teresa, became involved in a long legal fight to keep the photos from being published following his death.

Florida's legislature eventually passed a law making the publication of autopsy photos illegal unless a judge has ruled they can be unsealed, and Earnhardt's photos have never been made public.