Guitarist Les Paul to be buried in Wis. hometown
MILWAUKEE — Guitar virtuoso and inventor Les Paul will be buried Friday in his Wisconsin hometown — but not before the public gets to pay their respects in Milwaukee at a science and technology museum along the shores of Lake Michigan.
Discovery World museum President Joel Brennan said Tuesday said some of Paul’s family would attend Friday’s tribute and he expected many other will come to honor his life.
“We are honored to have been asked by the family to be a part of a celebration of his life,” Brennan said Tuesday.
Paul died in White Plains, N.Y. on Aug. 13 of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.
A private funeral service was planned Wednesday in New York City, followed by a reception at the Gibson Showroom, according to his manager Michael K. Braunstein.
Born Lester William Polfuss in 1915 to a German immigrant family, Paul built his first crystal radio at age nine in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, about the time he first picked up a guitar. In his early teens, he left home to travel with a country band.
Paul built one of the first prototypes for the solid-body electric guitar in 1941, but his work was rejected numerous times. Gibson finally began mass-producing a guitar based on his design in 1952, and the electric guitar went on to become the lead instrument in rock ‘n’ roll.
Friday’s public viewing will be from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the museum. A private family service will be held afterward at the Prairie Home Cemetery in Waukesha, located about 15 miles west of Milwaukee, Brennan said.
Cemetery manager David Brenner said some of Paul’s other family members are buried at the cemetery, including his mother. His plot, which will be larger, will be in another area to allow for the public to easily view it.
Discovery World’s exhibit on Paul’s life and contributions to music will also be free to the public Friday, Brennan said.
The museum will also on Friday show Paul’s final Wisconsin concert, held at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee last year. The guitar Paul used at his weekly gigs at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City will also be display, Brennan said.
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