Blues pioneer BB King was yesterday remembered in the Mississippi Delta as a man whose talent was equalled by his generous spirit.

King's funeral was held in Indianola, the small town where he first gained attention as a young singer and guitarist who had already been a sharecropper and worked in a cotton gin. One of his sons, Willie King of Chicago, said his father taught him to respond with love when others are angry. King was 89 when he died on May 14 at his home in Las Vegas. More than 4,000 people viewed his open coffin on Friday in Indianola.