Thousands mourn Stephen Hawking at funeral held in Cambridge church

CAMBRIDGE, Britain - The drizzle kept falling. Cambridge seemed to be weeping as thousands of citizens and visitors gathered on Saturday in respectful mourning silence outside the university church, Great St Mary's.

Up to 500 families members, friends and colleagues attended the private funeral service after the legendary British physicist professor Stephen Hawking's coffin was carried through Cambridge's main King's Parade street into the church.

The solid oak coffin, carried by six porters all in formal black uniform, was covered by an arrangement of white lilies, which represent the universe, and white roses symbolizing the polar star.