Emotions run deep at Motown Museum as Duke Fakir’s public viewing gets underway

Duke Fakir made one final visit to Hitsville, U.S.A.

Thursday, on the grounds where he and the Four Tops once made Motown magic, fans and family members commemorated the late Detroit singer in a viewing ahead of his Friday funeral.

The Motown Museum was a fitting farewell site for a man who adored Detroit and its musical legacy, and his family picked a perfect outfit for the elegant singer: In his gold casket, Fakir lay serene in a pink suit and purple paisley tie, a pair of violet-shaded glasses topping off the look.

In a private visitation Thursday morning ahead of the public viewing, dozens of Fakir family members — including his widow, Piper Fakir — gathered in the museum’s Hitsville Next complex for an occasion as praiseful as it was mournful. The current Four Tops lineup, enlisted by Fakir to carry on the group’s tradition, walked through just before doors opened to fans.

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Four Tops songs such as “Still Water (Love)” played quietly overhead in the atrium where Fakir’s casket was positioned, sunlight glimmering into the room through sheer white drapes. Large flower displays flanked him, including one adorned with an old-school vocal microphone, with black-and-white photos of Fakir and the Tops displayed throughout the room.

Fakir was 88 when he died July 22 of heart failure at his longtime Detroit home. The tenor had spent 70 years immersed in the world of the Four Tops, which he formed with three teenage friends in the 1950s and eventually helped propel to the upper tiers of Motown success. Shepherding that legacy became a calling for Fakir in recent decades following the deaths of group mates Lawrence Payton, Obie Benson and Levi Stubbs.

Motown Museum chairwoman Robin Terry spent an emotional moment Thursday at Fakir’s casket before stepping away and seeming to speak for him and the group: “The four of us are together again.”

A nearby waiting room displayed flower arrangements sent by Fakir friends, from former Detroit Tiger Willie Horton to the family of funk musician Roger Troutman, along with a massive tribute mosaic provided by Smokey Robinson and Claudette Robinson of the Miracles. The latter was among the Motown alumni on hand at Thursday's viewing.

It all unfolded yards away from the famous Hitsville house where Fakir and company recorded some of their most significant music while working alongside the other young, rising Detroit stars in the Motown universe.

It was 60 years ago this month that the Tops’ single “Baby I Need Your Loving” started its climb up the Billboard charts to become the group’s breakout hit.

Paul Riser, the acclaimed Motown arranger who scored that recording's orchestral parts, was among the first visitors to arrive Thursday.

“What a man here,” Riser said quietly as he walked away from the casket. “Probably Motown’s greatest ambassador. So special.”

On the museum’s outdoor plaza along West Grand Boulevard, a steady stream of fans queued up Thursday afternoon for their own goodbyes to Fakir, who for ages had been a ubiquitous presence in the city. Many of them sported “Fourever Tops” shirts.

Nearby sat Swanson Funeral Home’s white Cadillac LaSalle hearse — the same vehicle used for the funeral of Fakir’s friend Aretha Franklin in 2018.

Fakir family members said they selected the Motown Museum for the public wake because of his long dedication to the homegrown institution.

“We knew this would show the love and would honor him the way he wanted to be honored,” said daughter Farah Fakir Cook.

Friday’s funeral at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church was originally planned as a private event but is now open to the public, with services starting at 11 a.m.

“He loved the city. He never left for the suburbs. He stayed in the community,” said Cook of the decision. “He would want to be celebrated by the people and community who loved him.”

After their poignant moment at Fakir’s casket, the current Four Tops members headed to an adjacent room in Hitsville Next. They said that before his retirement earlier this year, Fakir had blessed them with the mission of carrying on the group. That they will do, including a 2025 outing with the Temptations marking the 40th anniversary of their co-headlining T’N’T Tour.

Tops member Lawrence Payton Jr. — son of the late group co-founder — said Fakir was insistent that it remain a family affair.

“They had a togetherness and bond. It took death to separate them,” Payton said. “That same loyalty, commitment and love is what he wants us to continue.”

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.