A Nation Bids Farewell

Thousands Gather for Service Honoring Reagan

Eulogies:
• President Bush
• Former President George Bush
• Former British PM Thatcher
• Former Canadian PM Mulroney

Photo: Former President Ronald Reagan's coffin is brought down the steps at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, Friday, June 11, 2004. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

At the cathedral, eight military pallbearers preceded by flag bearers carried the flag-draped casket from a hearse to the front entrance as a military band played ruffles and flourishes. Nancy Reagan, wearing a black suit, walked slowly up the cathedral steps behind it, followed by Reagan's three surviving children and their families.

President Bush, sitting in the front row, led the former first lady to her seat across the aisle as the service began about 11:30 a.m.

In a eulogy peppered with personal stories and humorous anecdotes about the former president, Bush told the audience that Reagan thought the United States "was not just as a place in the world but the hope of the world."

"Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now," Bush said, "but we preferred it when he belonged to us."

Earlier at the Capitol, Nancy Reagan entered the Rotunda shortly after 10 a.m. EDT and approached the casket lying on a wooden platform, called a catafalque, that dates from the funeral of Abraham Lincoln.

The 82-year-old widow ran her hands over the American flag covering the casket, whispered a few words as if speaking to her departed husband and gently kissed the flag. After a final farewell pat, she made her way out of the Rotunda on the arm of Maj. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, the commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, who has escorted her throughout the six days of public ceremonies.

Nancy Reagan and members of the Reagan family then waited at the bottom of the Capitol's western steps while Army howitzers fired a 21-gun salute and the casket was carried down to a waiting hearse to the strains of a military band. Standing under an umbrella, Nancy Reagan held her right hand over her heart as the casket was placed in the hearse.

After today's funeral service in Washington, the body of Reagan, who died at his California home Saturday at age 93 after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, is to be flown back to his home state for burial at his Simi Valley presidential library in a sunset ceremony.

Under cloudy skies and drizzling rain, crowds gathered in the streets of the capital to watch the hearse containing the mahogany casket make the five-mile trip to the cathedral from the Rotunda.

By the time public viewing ended at 8 a.m. EDT, an estimated 90,000 people had filed past the casket in the hushed Rotunda, the silence broken only by the shuffling of feet and the periodic changing of the joint honor guard composed of members of the armed services.

Before 8 a.m., dozens of people had already staked out spots near the National Cathedral around the intersections of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues NW. They sat on the curb, rain jackets and coolers by their sides, cameras and video recorders ready to capture their moment of history that would pass by them in about three hours.

A block or two past the Cathedral, the flags of dozens of countries stood at half staff at the diplomatic missions and the Islamic Center on Embassy Row. Police cars and uniformed officers were posted every few blocks and clustered thickly around the vice president's residence at Observatory Circle.

At the gothic cathedral, about 4,000 invited guests gathered for a funeral service featuring hymns, anthems, prayers and eulogies for the nation's 40th president. In addition to President Bush and his father, former president George H.W. Bush, who served as Reagan's vice president during his eight years in office, the gathering included more than two dozen current and former presidents and prime ministers from various countries.

Among them were former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney -- Reagan contemporaries who served during his 1981-1989 presidency, a period in which he is credited with bringing an end to the Cold War.

British attendees included Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Irish President Mary McAleese were among the other current leaders at the service.

In addition to former president Bush, the three other living former presidents -- Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton -- were also attending the funeral.

As the gathering awaited the arrival of Reagan's casket, Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, an opera singer who appeared at the request of Nancy Reagan, sang Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria."

The interfaith service was led by John C. Danforth, an Episcopal minister and former Republican senator from Missouri who was recently chosen by President Bush to become the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. But the service also included the participation of Roman Catholic, Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Muslim clergymen.

The streets of Washington were quieter than usual as the motorcade traveled to the cathedral, President Bush having declared today a national day of mourning and a federal holiday. The Washington, D.C., government followed suit, closing city offices and schools.

Dozens of blocks were closed to traffic and motorcades bearing world leaders converged on the cathedral.

As part of a final day of ritual and tribute, American military bases around the world scheduled 21-gun salutes at noon, followed by a round of 50-gun salutes at dusk.

And in what organizers described as a new tradition, the cathedral will ring its bell 40 times following the funeral -- symbolizing Reagan's standing as the 40th president. Churches across the nation have been invited to join in that gesture by ringing their own bells 40 times at around 1:15 p.m. EDT.

Staff writer Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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