They lined the streets of Formby to salute a woman of unique courage.
In nearby Liverpool they lowered the flags to half-mast and beamed a moving tribute on to huge city centre screens.
Inside the packed church, where MPs and local dignitaries swelled the pews, the mourners stood four deep in the side aisles and many dozens more looked on from the back.
It was as though a war hero was being laid to rest on Merseyside yesterday.
And in a way it was.
A hero of a 24-year battle against lies and subterfuge.
A hero who never flinched in her fight against injustice right to the very end.
That's why they called the service a "Celebration for the life of Anne Williams".
The mum-of-three would have been so proud of this heart-felt, emotional tribute.
Not out of vanity, but in recognition of the rightfulness of the cause she devoted her life to... overturning the Hillsborough inquests which falsified the reasons she lost her beloved 15-year-old son Kevin in 1989.
How apt it was that she was taken into church on a beautiful spring day, the same as it was when she last saw Kevin as he raced off to see his beloved Liverpool play an FA Cup semi-final, never to return.
As the hearse pulled up outside Our Lady Of Compassion Church, and white flowers spelling out the word "Mum" came into view, a hush fell over the street.
Hundreds of people, many wearing Liverpool and Everton colours, bowed their heads as her coffin was carried out with a bouquet of red and white roses on top.
A floral tribute on the coffin from her husband read: "Night night Annie. Love you Steve. xxx"
She was led into church to the sound of the football hymn Abide With Me, past weeping friends, supporters and family members, including Steve, her two remaining children, Sara, 33, and Michael, 41, and her grandchildren, Nina, 12, Grace, five and Finley, four.
To the side of the altar, Liverpool FC manager Brendan Rodgers and managing director Ian Ayre, Labour MPs Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram and Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson looked on sombrely.
Other families who lost loved ones on the Leppings Lane terraces that day came to pay their respects, including Barry Devonside, whose son Christopher, 18, died and Steve Kelly, whose brother Michael was crushed in the tragedy.
Stevie Hart, who carried Kevin from the pitch on an ad hoarding, recited The Farewell by Armagh writer Peter Makem, penned in memory of "a heroic life, a great citizen of the city and the world".
It read: "Farewell good friend, farewell. Your deeds have changed us. Your days have lived in us, that we must speak the flame they lit."
Rarely will you hear a line more poignant, powerful and true read at a funeral than: "Your deeds have changed us."
Because Anne's deeds helped bring about a change of historic proportions.
The refusal of this woman, who died of bowel cancer 11 days ago aged 62, to be beaten down by the Establishment in finding the truth about her son's death did so much to transform the national perception of Britain's greatest sporting disaster.
Parish priest Father Bernard Higham spoke of a woman who was "determined, faithful and gracious".
He pointed at a small, flickering candle in a brass stand that Anne had given him after Kevin's death, which had been placed on her coffin.
In 1989 it was put next to a statue of Our Lady and it had been lit by parishioners in Kevin's memory ever since.
Now, said the priest, they will light it for both mother and son.
As Anne's brother Danny Gordon read out a poem Anne had written, which he had found sorting through her belongings, he wasn't alone in feeling choked...
"I look up to the sky, ninety-six stars shining bright, The ninety-six helped me in my fight, Kevin was top of the list because he was mine, His case was so corrupt and riddled with crime, The other ninety-five must be the same, If they did it to one they would do it again, I got to know a lot of families and heard the tales they had to tell, All about their loved ones going through hell, We suffered setbacks and lots of worries, We laughed, we cried and swapped our stories, We hoped that justice would come one day, When those who caused so much pain would pay."
Danny said: "Anne has taken many knocks and setbacks throughout her life and always found the strength to get through them without becoming bitter.
She touched many hearts throughout the world and has been an inspiration to many.
"She'll be deeply missed by us all. We'll never walk alone. She'll always be with us."
When he finished, the 800-strong congregation gave a loud round of applause.
As the coffin was led back out into the spring sunshine to the sound of Time To Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, the swelling crowds fell silent again.
Standing outside, Shadow Health Minister Andy Burnham, who has done much behind the scenes in Westminster to expose the Hillsborough cover-up, said it had been a privilege to have known her.
"Anne reminded me of my mum," he said. "I'll never forget her talking to me after the 20th anniversary service when she said she had evidence Kevin was still alive at 4pm on that day. I knew then the whole thing had to be brought down.
"After all those years the Establishment was wrong and Anne was right.
"That's an incredible epitaph for a mum from Formby. She went to the ends of the earth for her son and for everybody else."
Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram added: "Anne was a woman of great courage and fortitude. She never gave up."
And Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said of the council's decision to lower its flags: "We wanted to show our respect to a woman who has been an integral part of the Hillsborough campaign for 24 years. Anne will never be forgotten."
As her cortege slowly headed off for Southport crematorium, the crowd on the pavements burst into spontaneous applause for the tiny local woman who never tired of kicking down the seemingly overwhelming obstacles.
One woman threw a rose at the hearse. And, as her coffin moved slowly past his eye-line, a middle-aged man next to her simply mouthed: "What a bloody inspiration."
Nothing else needed saying.
Source: Daily Mirror
