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In New Orleans, funeral traditions adjust as virus claims a Zulu king

The New Orleans man was Mardi Gras royalty, and would have had more than a thousand people marching behind his casket in second-line parades.

Credit: AP

Nicole Hammond-Crowden, center, her husband Bernard Crowden, and aunt Lori Adams, wear masks as they listen to a reading broadcast from a cell phone through a microphone, by a relative who could not attend, at the funeral for her father Larry Hammond, who died from the coronavirus, in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

NEW ORLEANS — If Larry Arthur Hammond had died in a normal time, he would have had a funeral befitting a Zulu king.

The New Orleans man, who died of COVID-19 in March at the age of 70, was Mardi Gras royalty, and would have had more than a thousand people marching behind his casket in second-line parades.

That's impossible now as the coronavirus pandemic forces social distancing. But just as New Orleans jazz is all about improvisation, his friends improvised.

They organized a parade of cars and trucks by the family home.

His widow Lillian Hammond says it helped make up for having a small funeral.

Credit: AP

A line of cars with friends and family, who could not attend the funeral for Larry Hammond due to the coronavirus pandemic, pass by his family and their home to pay their respects, in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Honking, waving and calling to his family, drivers and passengers showed their respect and love for the 2007 king of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, a retired postal worker and Air Force veteran who tutored, mentored and provided Christmas presents through Omega Psi Phi. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Credit: AP

The family of Larry Hammond wave as a line of cars with friends and family, who could not attend his funeral due to the coronavirus, pass by their home, in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Hammond was Mardi Gras royalty, and would have had more than a thousand people marching behind his casket in second-line parades. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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