Ashe Service Draws Show of Support : Funeral: Well-known and unknown are among 5,600 who showed to remember former tennis star for more than his achievements on the court.

Arthur Ashe was buried Wednesday, remembered more for his decency and compassion than for all he accomplished in tennis.

“Arthur left us with a better world to live in today. But most of all, we are here today because Arthur touched our lives with the most powerful emotion of all: love,” Charlie Pasarell, a former Davis Cup teammate, said as he fought back tears.

Pasarell was one of those asked to address 5,600 mourners at the three-hour funeral service for Ashe, the first black man to win Wimbledon and the U.S. and Australian Opens.

The 49-year-old Ashe died last Saturday of AIDS-related pneumonia.

“No man loved humankind more than Arthur did,” said Pasarell, Ashe’s roommate at UCLA. “And that gift of love was Arthur’s great virtue. So on this day I simply want to say, ‘Goodbye my dear friend.’ I love you Arthur.”

The service was held at the Arthur R. Ashe Jr. Athletic Center, a sports arena Richmond built in 1981 and named after its native son. Ashe was buried in a suburban Richmond cemetery beside his mother.

“Arthur Ashe was just plain better than most of us,” New York Mayor David Dinkins said.

Dinkins turned to Ashe’s 6-year-old daughter, sitting with her mother, Jeanne, and said: “Camera, sweetheart, your father’s most precious legacy to you is not paid in coin but in kindness, a good name and the affection of millions of people who never met you, but who will do almost anything for you because of the goodness and decency of your father.”

The 21 speakers also included Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor; Andrew Young, a former United Nations ambassador; and Davis Cup teammate Stan Smith.

Pallbearers included Pasarell and former French Open champion Yannick Noah.

“Everything he did,” Young said, “he did for a group or a cause bigger than himself.”

Wilder said Ashe “used every fiber of his strength, on and off the court, to right the world’s injustices. He didn’t seek the counsel of what was popular. Nor did he concern himself with the plaudits for approval. He made up his mind, kept his own countenance and inwardly the discipline that we’ve all come to know--and did what he set out to do.”

William Gray, president of the United Negro College Fund, called Ashe’s 1975 victory at Wimbledon a benchmark for minorities.

“For an African-American to win Wimbledon in a sport that is defined as one for white and wealthy people, that can’t be described or defined,” Gray said.

“It inspired a lot of us to dream beyond ourselves.”

Ashe left Richmond in 1961 because of the constraints of segregation, and went on to become the world’s top-ranked tennis player. Ashe was able to use his tennis success to become an effective worker on behalf of human rights, children and, recently, AIDS awareness.

Noah said Ashe was “someone who was very important on and off the court.” “He had so much energy,” he said. “He kept working for the minorities. He will be remembered for what he was: a man who never stopped working.”

Darlene Randolph, 34, of Richmond, was the first person in line at 7:15 in the morning, nearly six hours before the service began.

“My main objective is to let others realize that there are young black people who are aware of the struggle and who are willing to continue and to prepare and educate their children to follow in his path,” she said.