One of Harlem’s greatest heroes was laid to rest last Saturday as scores of family members, celebrities, politicians and friends crowded into Riverside Church to say goodbye to the late Ossie Davis.
Davis, 87, noted writer, actor and activist, was memorialized in Harlem, where his stellar career began some 66 years ago.
A leading light of Broadway and film, he shared his outstanding career in the arts with his wife, actress Ruby Dee, for more than half a century.
The service at Riverside Church in Manhattan included moving reflections and tributes by the beloved actor’s children and grandchildren, Alan Alda, Burt Reynolds and Attallah Shabazz, eldest daughter of Malcolm X.
Maya Angelou and Sonia Sanchez delivered stirring poetic tributes, Wynton Marsalis performed and Avery Brooks read from Davis’ play Purlie Victorious.
Harry Belafonte delivered the eulogy at the ecumenical ceremony, which was presided over by the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, pastor of Riverside Church, and the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Davis was a member.
“It is hard to fathom that we will no longer be able to call on his wisdom, his humor, his loyalty and his moral strength to guide us in the choices that are yet to be made and the battles that are yet to be fought,” Belafonte said.
“But how fortunate we were to have him as long as we did.”
Hollywood luminaries and political figures alike came to mourn the beloved actor. Those on hand included Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett, Courtney Vance, Kim Fields, Mary Alice, Alice Walker, Delroy Lindo, S. Epatha Merkerson, Charles Dutton, Michael Eric Dyson, Max Roach, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Church Schumer, Congressman Charles Rangel, former New York Mayor David Dinkins, Percy Sutton, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, Vernon Jordan, Rachel Robinson, Black Enterprise founder Earl G. Graves Sr., and Susan L. Taylor and Ed Lewis of Essence.
“He would have been a very good president of the United States,” Clinton said. “I have only this to say: Like most of you here, he gave more to me than I gave to him.”
“Ossie was my hero, and he still is,” said Alan Alda, a friend of the family for 44 years. “Ossie was a thing of beauty.”
Burt Reynolds, his co-star on the television show Evening Shade, recalled Davis as a friend who could make everything seem right. “I want so badly someday to have his dignity n a little of it, anyway,” Reynolds said.
The actor died of natural causes on February 4 in Miami, where he was filming a movie. He was born in Cogdell, Ga., in 1917.
He is survived by his wife, Ruby; his daughters, Nora Davis Day and Hasna Muhammad; his son, Guy; a brother, William; and seven grandchildren.
