GARY | Wearing Michael Jackson T-shirts and listening to hits like "Billie Jean," dozens of fans gathered at the late pop icon's boyhood home in Gary on Tuesday, the day of his star-studded memorial in Los Angeles.

Christina Storms, 34, drove her two daughters more than 260 miles from New Albany, Ind. to see the modest home in the hardscrabble northwest Indiana city where Jackson lived until age 11. The trio was decked out in Jackson T-shirts.

"It's exciting just to be here and it's something the kids won't forget," said Storms, who paid $100 for souvenirs from vendors camped out under tents across the street.

As thousands attended the Los Angeles public memorial, with stars like Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie, a steady stream of fans came by Jackson's small childhood home where teddy bears, flowers and balloons piled up outside.

For some fans it was the closest they could get to the late icon who left Gary in 1969 after the Jackson 5 recorded their first album. For others, it was the preferred place to pay their respects.

Retired chemical operator Jackie Ford, a self-described "die-hard" fan who used to do Jackson's signature "moonwalk" and wore a white glove, drove to Gary from Aberdeen, Miss.

"I felt like I needed to pay homage to 'the greatest,'" the 49-year-old man said Tuesday. "I saw it on TV and now I'm here. It's like my dream came true."

Ford came to Gary with his fiance, Candi Dixon, 36, a nurse assistant from Kalamazoo, Mich.

"This is a moment we'll always remember," she said. "This is the closest we could get to him."

Gary has planned its own Jackson memorial at the U.S. Steel Yard ballpark on Friday.

Shirley Campbell of Bolingbrook, Ill., had plans to watch the Los Angeles memorial on television later in the day.

"We're kind of still in mourning," said Campbell, 50. "He's one of the best and no one can replace him."