BY NEELY TUCKER Free Press Staff Writer

The Tuesday afternoon funeral at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit was, in name, for Geraldine "Gerri" Burston, the sister of Motown star Smokey Robinson. But by the time Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves and about 200 others arrived for the service, they also were mourning another member of the Motown family -- Eddie Kendricks, lead vocalist and founding member of the Temptations.

Burston, 69, died last week of lung cancer. Kendricks, 52, died Monday in Birmingham, Ala., of the same cause. Kendricks had a lung removed last year, and blamed his illness on 30 years of smoking.

Kendricks became the fourth member of the Motown family to die of cancer in as many months. Three of the four were heavy smokers.

Earl Van Dyke, anchor of the studio for years, keyboard ace, band leader and mentor to Stevie Wonder, died Sept. 18 of prostate cancer at Harper Hospital. He was 62. Mary Wells -- famed for early 1960s hits such as "My Guy," and "Two Lovers," died July 26 in Los Angeles, from cancer of the larynx. She was 49.

Tuesday afternoon, amid this run of sorrow, mourners remembered Kendricks' lovely vocals with one of pop music's most influential and successful groups. The Temps rose to popularity during the height of the mid-1960s British Invasion of American pop music, and were one of the first groups to gain popularity among both black and white teenagers.

In his seven years with the Temps, 1964-1971, Kendricks was a part of 26 Top 40 hits. Three of those hit No. 1, and another 10 were in the Top 10. His falsetto was the lead vocal on the group's first hit -- "The Way You Do the Things You Do," as well as two enduring No. 1 songs -- "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" and "I Can't Get Next to You."

"If ever a voice was a window to a man's soul, it was the voice of Eddie Kendricks," singer John Oates said in a statement from Los Angeles Tuesday. Oates idolized Kendricks in the 1960s and recorded with him in the 1980s.

After parting with the Temps, Kendricks had early-'70s hits with "Keep on Truckin' (Part 1)" and "Boogie Down." His star faded in the mid-1970s, and after 1976 he did not have a national hit.

Gerri Burston was Robinson's older sister. By the time Robinson was 10, she was raising him. By the time he became a star, she was as much a part of the Motown family as he was.

At her funeral Tuesday, Robinson called her "my sister at birth, my mother by age 10, by buddy always."

But when Robinson, in his 15-minute eulogy, remembered Burston and Robinson, his soft voice rose in anger at the cigarettes he said killed both.

"I'm tired of coming to funerals of friends who won't stop smoking," he said, and applause rippled through the crowd. "Just this morning, a brother of mine, Eddie Kendricks, passed on from lung cancer, too. . . . I'm tired of coming to your funerals."

Later, outside among rows of limousines and rows of flowers, Franklin spoke quietly about Kendricks.

"It's been hard," she said, "with everybody passing. Eddie's passing was the first thing I heard on my phone machine this morning. And, you know, the last time I saw him was at David Ruffin's funeral."

Perhaps few were closer to Kendricks during the late 1950s and early 1960s than Martha Reeves. Both were struggling young singers just out of high school, often singing during the legendary Twenty Grand nightclub's Happy Hour for $5 a night.

"I met Eddie at Phelps' Lounge, when I walked in and he was singing 'All I Could Do Was Cry,' " Reeves said. "Turned out we were both from around Eufala, Ala., and knew a lot of the same people back home."

Later this week, Reeves will postpone a Los Angeles performance to fly to Birmingham, Ala., to visit with her Eufala buddy one last time.

The funeral for Eddie Kendricks is Saturday at First Baptist Church in Ensley, a Birmingham suburb.