Kobe Bryant: Ohio Funeral Home Holding Memorial for NBA Legend and His Daughter
02/06/2020 11:53 am EST
Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash in Southern California on Jan. 26, and an Ohio funeral home is honoring those lost by giving residents a chance to sign a register book that will eventually be given to the Bryant family.
WHIO TV reports that Routsong Funeral Home will make the book available for locals to sign this week between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday before it is flown out to Bryant's family. Photos of the book shared by WHIO TV reporter Ronnell Hunt show a photo of Bryant and Gianna placed near the book as well as a table holding Bryant's two Los Angeles Lakers jerseys.
The other victims of the crash included Gianna's basketball teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, Altobelli's parents John and Keri Altobelli, Chester's mom Sarah Chester, girls' basketball coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.
After the crash, fans had been leaving tributes to Bryant at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he played with the Lakers for 20 seasons in the NBA. On Sunday, the arena began removing the items left by fans to make room for contractually obligated events, and Staples Center president Lee Zeidman shared that all the items will be sent to Bryant's wife, Vanessa, at her request.
"We will catalog and box up all the non-perishable items like T-shirts, letters, basketballs, other toys, stuffed animals, and we're going to put them in containers and ship them to Vanessa Bryant and the family," Zeidman told CNN.
The arena was "extremely honored and happy" by Vanessa's request, and perishable items, like flowers, will be composted and spread around L.A. Live and the Staples Center, an idea Staples Center got from Manchester Arena in England, which did something similar after a terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017.
"We thought it was a very touching tribute and felt that this would be a way to honor Kobe, Gianna, and the seven others who lost their lives as well as the people who spent money to bring those flowers down here," Zeidman said.
Photo Credit: Getty / Andrew D. Bernstein
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