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FILE - This 1966 file photo shows Little Richard. Tthe self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday, May 9, 2020.(AP Photo, File)

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FILE - In this Nov. 13, 1986 file photo, Little Richard poses for the cameras as he is inducted into Rock Walk, a sidewalk collection of handprints and signatures of rock and roll musicians, in Los Angeles. Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday, May 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Avery, File)

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FILE - In this July 22, 2001 file photo, Little Richard performs at the 93rd birthday and 88th year in show business gala celebration for Milton Berle, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday, May 9, 2020. (AP Photo/John Hayes, File)

Little Richard to be buried at historically black college

By Associated Press AP

PUBLISHED 5:11 PM ET May. 15, 2020

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Little Richard will be buried at Oakwood University, a historically black university in Huntsville, Alabama.

Gerald Kibble, director of Oakwood Memorial Gardens, said the private funeral will be held Wednesday and will not be open to the public.

Little Richard's close friend Pastor Bill Minson said the singer was an alumnus of the university. Little Richard died Saturday at the age of 87 in Tennessee due to bone cancer.

The cemetery is owned by the Seventh-day Adventist university.