Celebrities pay respects to Natalie Cole as she's laid to rest in Los Angeles

Jan 12, 2016

On Monday, Natalie Cole was laid to rest in her native Los Angeles, and celebrities and singers alike came to pay their respects.

Notably, among the hundreds of mourners were fellow musicians Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, with Robinson speaking at the funeral, reports the LA Times.

“I feel so blessed to have called you my friend, and my buddy, and many times my confidante,” Robinson said of Cole. “You are so real and down to Earth. Now I have to say you’re so real and up to heaven.”

Songwriter David Foster also added his voice to the many that were there praising Cole’s life, as did Lionel Richie.

“You don’t maintain a 40-plus-year career by accident,” Foster said. “It’s just a short list of real singers who could prevail against the changing tide of public taste. Natalie transcended this simple genre classification whether it was R&B, sassy in her early hits, or her later work interpreting the jazz standards.”

“Natalie had one extra pressure that she was faced with every day of her life,” said Richie. “She was a little girl who wanted to be a superstar in a family that already had a superstar. That’s what make her prize of winning so unforgettable.”

Cole died on New Years Eve at the age of 65 from congestive heart failure.