As expected, Nelly’s celebrity status attracted hundreds of spectators to his sister Jacqueline “Jackie” Sheree Donahue’s viewing and funeral Tuesday at Hopewell Baptist Church in North St. Louis.
St. Louis City Police officers courteously controlled the crowd at the hilltop church, sometimes taking direction from the family, who welcomed mourners who were Nelly’s fans.
“I just want to thank everybody for coming out n that’s the reason I’m here,” Nelly said during his remarks from the pulpit.
“I came to thank you all because you all have shown so much love.”
Her sister Ashley Donahue said, “She would have wanted this, because she wanted to go out in style.”
Nelly said he received several calls of condolences from entertainers, including Patti Labelle and Stevie Wonder. Angela Winbush and Ronald Isley were among celebrities who attended the funeral.
Donahue, the daughter of Sarah Donahue and Cornell Haynes Sr., also Nelly’s father, died Thursday at Barnes-Jewish-Children’s Hospital of a massive heart attack due to complications from acute myelogeneous leukemia, a malignant cancer found in adults. She was 31 and is survived by two children, Shawn Thomas Jr. and Sidney Thomas.
Donahue, eulogized as frank and fun-loving but quick to “cuss you out,” was diagnosed with leukemia on March 29, 2001. The disease went into remission for nearly two years before she suffered a relapse.
Donahue, along with Nelly, formed Jes Us 4 Jackie nonprofit organization and launched a major bone marrow search. Though they attracted more than 1,700 donors in seven cities, Donahue never found a match.
A donor drive in Atlanta, Ga. was rejected by an organization at Spelman College because its membership disapproved of Nelly’s video, “Tipdrill.”
Donahue’s only chance of survival depended on finding a bone marrow or stem cell match, since the cancer was active after she underwent chemotherapy. Cord blood attached to placentas of newborn babies contains the same kind of stem cells as those in bone marrow.
According to Dr. Michael DeBaun, interviewed following a press conference about Donahue’s condition in 2003, “There are 30,000 African-American babies born in the metro area every year, and cord blood is just thrown away.”
According to the National Bone Marrow Donor Program, which teamed with Jes Us 4 Jackie, African Americans make up only eight percent of the nearly 5 million donors on registry.
Those unsubstantial numbers, coupled with African Americans’ unique and complex genetic makeup, give blacks only a 25 percent chance of finding a donor. Bone marrow transplants require matching tissue type combinations along with blood type, which are more common among people of the same race.
Although relatives often have the same blood types, 70 percent are unable to find a match among their own family members.
According to rarediseases.com, one of the difficulties of getting African Americans to donate is community skepticism and wariness toward government-funded medical programs.
“Even though Jackie didn’t find a match, I still urge African Americans to get on the registry,” said Jackie’s mother, Sarah.
Sarah invited Winbush, a cancer survivor, to sing at the funeral.
Before she sang a gospel song that stirred the church, Winbush preached, “To be absent from the body n if anyone knows the scripture n is to be present with the lord.”
Nelly echoed that sentiment in his remarks.
“I’m not here to see my sister n I am fortunate enough to have talked to my sister before she passed. So I talked to Jackie, I didn’t talk to the body n I talked to Jackie,” he said.
Nelly made two clarifications about his sister.
“I was reading the (daily) paper, and they said ‘Nelly’s half sister.’ And I’m trying to figure it out,” Nelly said.
“How do you have a half sister? Is it the right side, the left side, the top or the bottom? All I know is the pain is whole.”
He also corrected a program note describing her as “Nelly’s stylist.” “That’s wrong also. She was more than a stylist,” Nelly said.
“This young lady was a mother, sister, cousin, daughter. She took care of me, no matter what I needed n and she was sick.”
The rapper laughed as he tried to remember when Jackie first became his stylist.
“The reason she did work for me is that I got her fired from her first job,” Nelly said.
“I’d just got my deal, and I went and got my sister, because she needed a car. She missed work and got fired, so I said, ‘Now you gotta work for me.'”
Nelly also recalled when the disease struck Jackie.
“She was living with me when this unfortunate accident hit her. She was downstairs sleeping, and she was screaming in pain, and I didn’t know what it was n she just kept screaming and screaming,” Nelly said.
“She called my mother, and they called the ambulance and finally found out that she was diagnosed with this disease.”
Nelly shared his grief openly with those who gathered to remember his sister, saying, “There’s nothing I can do, there’s no amount of money, fan base, letters that can be written, no amount of songs that can help.”
