Sunday Funeral Scheduled for Celebrated Pianist

FORT WORTH (AP/Staff) – A weekend funeral is scheduled for Van Cliburn, the celebrated pianist whose virtuosity triumphed over the Cold War. Family spokesman Tom Stoker says a funeral is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. Sunday at the Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where Cliburn worshipped for decades. Entombment at the mausoleum at Greenwood Memorial Park will follow. Stoker says services will be open to the public, as will a 4-6 p.m. Saturday visitation at the church. Cliburn, who grew up in Kilgore, died Wednesday at 78 after fighting bone cancer. He had played for every American president since Harry Truman, plus royalty and heads of state around the world. But he is best remembered for winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, as the height of the Cold War.