Private services for Duane Allman, 24, who died Friday in a motorcycle crash will be held today. The body will lie in state until noon at Memorial Chapel.

Founder and lead-guitarist of the nationally acclaimed Allman Brothers Band, Duane Allman was killed late Friday afternoon when his maroon motorcycle spun out of control at the intersection Hillcrest and Bartlett Avenue.

Born in Nashville, Tenn. Nov. 11, 1946, Duane Allman had been a member of the San Francisco rock band, The Hour Glass. He had been featured guitarist to such performers as Aretha Franklin, Arthur Conley, Clarence Carter, Delaney and Bonnie, Eric Clapton, and Herbie Mann.

Wilson Pickett had named him Skyman, for his backup guitar performance on Pickett’s rendition of “Hey Jude”.

Formed in 1969 with the help of his brother Greg, the Allman Brothers Band called Macon their home. Their first album “The Allman Brothers Band” released in 1969 received wide attention from critics and fans alike.

“Duane Allman’s use of his instrument is on a different plane, a more group oriented one which allows for virtuosity” wrote critics in the Underground Press. President of Capricorn Records, Frank Fenter, the company for whom the Allman Brothers Band record said “The group is the most communally artistic rock and roll band I have ever heard”

The band had just completed a West Coast tour and were preparing for another concert tour which would have taken them to north eastern cities concluding with a New York City Carnegie Hall performance.

The bands third album the Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East had earned for them their first gold record, awarded for sales exceeding $1,000,000.

Survivors include his mother, Mrs. Geraldine Allman of Daytona Beach, Florida, his brother, Gregory Allman, and a daughter, Miss Galadrielle Allman.