'Reagan belongs to the ages'
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| Nancy Reagan, center, was comforted by son Ron Reagan, left, daughter Patti Davis and son Michael Reagan as they said their final farewell yesterday beside the casket of her husband at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.
Los Angeles Times |
By Jim Puzzanghera and Dawn Chmielewski
San Jose Mercury News
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — A weeklong national tribute to former President Ronald Reagan culminated yesterday with a majestic midday funeral in the nation's capital and a picturesque sunset burial on a Southern California hilltop.
Associated Press
With stirring hymns and patriotic songs, Reagan was laid to rest in services that mixed religion and politics, all in front of some of the world's most powerful people with millions watching live on television. At the end, it proved to be too much even for his stoic wife, former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
Onlookers in Thousands Oaks, Calif., lined the streets yesterday for the funeral procession of former President Ronald Reagan. Many waited hours for the motorcade to pass to say their final goodbyes.
As she said one last goodbye at the close of the service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, emotions restrained during a long week finally surfaced.
As Navy Capt. James A. Symond, commander of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, presented the folded American flag from the casket, Reagan closed her eyes and clutched it to her chest. She walked to the mahogany casket, pressed her cheek to it and mouthed the words "I love you."
Then, as she laid her head on the casket, Reagan broke down in tears. She sobbed until her children came to her side to comfort her and lead her away.
It was a poignant end to the nation's first state funeral in 31 years. Throughout the day, it unfolded like a Hollywood production, a fitting coast-to-coast send-off for Reagan, the 93-year-old former movie star who drew up the plans years ago.
"As an actor in Hollywood's golden age, he helped to make the American dream live for millions all over the globe. His own life was a fulfillment of that dream," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in a touching, weak-voiced eulogy, videotaped because a stroke prevents her from speaking publicly. "He never succumbed to the embarrassment some people feel about an honest expression of love of country. He was able to say 'God bless America' with equal fervor in public and in private."
Los Angeles Times
For the past week, much of America sent its blessings right back.
President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney sat among former presidents and their wives during the funeral service for Ronald Reagan that was held at the Washington National Cathedral. Past and present dignitaries were among the 4,000 guests at the funeral. Reagan was remembered as an optimist who restored American confidence.
About 200,000 people waited hours outside his presidential library in Simi Valley and then at the U.S. Capitol Building to spend a few moments walking past Reagan's casket. On a gray, drizzly yesterday in the nation's capital — eerily quiet with the federal government closed for a day of national mourning — they lined the motorcade routes, massed outside the Washington National Cathedral and at Andrews Air Force Base to say one final goodbye.
"I just felt like it was the right thing to do," said Rob Bright, 34, an attorney from Cincinnati, awaiting the motorcade yesterday morning with two large American flags in his arms and five small ones planted in the grass at his feet. They would become treasured, he said, because Reagan's motorcade passed them.
People did the same in the brilliant California sunshine.
The 25-mile route from Point Mugu Naval Air Station to Simi Valley looked like a Fourth of July parade. Spectators wore American flag-decorated T-shirts as they waited two hours for the motorcade. Overpasses filled with onlookers and blossomed with red, white and blue helium balloons.
Nancy Reagan had acknowledged the crowds earlier in Washington when she reached the top of the steps of the blue-and-white presidential 747 that carried her husband's casket back to California. She turned and waved, just as she and Reagan used to do during his presidency.
Yesterday, as throughout the week, Nancy Reagan was a focus for mourners and television cameras. Bush escorted her the last few steps to her seat in the front row of the cathedral. There, her daughter Patti Davis at her side, and the rest of the Reagan family nearby, she watched a service that reflected the former president: serious themes mixed with old stories — and a few jokes.
Associated Press
"As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life," former President George H.W. Bush said in one of four eulogies, choking back emotion. "I learned kindness — we all did. I also learned courage — the nation did."
Navy Capt. James A. Symonds, commander of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, gave Nancy Reagan the flag from her husband's casket during ceremonies yesterday in Simi Valley, Calif.
The elder Bush said he also learned about humor from Reagan.
"When asked, 'How did your visit go with Bishop Tutu,' he replied, 'So-so,' " Bush said, drawing laughter from Nancy Reagan and the rest of the crowd. "And it was typical. It was wonderful."
Reagan was praised as a man of deep faith and unshakable beliefs; an optimist who restored American confidence after it was weakened by Vietnam and Watergate and a committed Cold Warrior who brought the former Soviet Union to the brink of collapse.
"From Dixon to Des Moines to Hollywood to Sacramento to Washington, D.C., all who met him remembered the same sincere, honest, upright fellow," President George W. Bush said. "Ronald Reagan's deepest beliefs never had much to do with fashion or convenience. His convictions were always politely stated, affably argued and as firm and straight as the columns of this cathedral."
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by Reagan as the first woman on the court in 1981, set the tone early in the 90-minute service. She read from a 1630 sermon given by John Winthrop as he headed toward the young pilgrim colony in Massachusetts. It was Winthrop's use of a New Testament phrase of a "city upon a hill" to describe the ideals of the new settlement that Reagan evoked often during his presidency.
Associated Press
"No one could more eloquently summon his nation to high purpose or bring forth the majesty of the presidency and make it glow better than the man who referred to his own nation as a city on the hill," former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said in his eulogy.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, left, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney took part in funeral services for Ronald Reagan at Washington National Cathedral.
Past and present dignitaries from the United States and around the world were among the 4,000 guests at the funeral. There were current leaders like British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and those from Reagan's era, like Thatcher and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
There were old friends, like former Secretary of State George Shultz, as well as old foes, like former Vice President Walter Mondale, who lost to Reagan in a landslide in the 1984 presidential election. All four living former presidents — Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton — attended, along with their wives.
The ceremony in Simi Valley was smaller, just 700 people, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife and Hollywood celebrities like Pat Sajak and Tom Selleck. And it was more personal, with Reagan's three surviving children, Michael Reagan, Ron Reagan and Patti Davis, giving the eulogies.
"History will record his words as a leader. We here have long since measured his worth as a man, honest, compassionate, graceful, brave," Ron Reagan said. "He was the most plainly decent man you could ever hope to meet."
Fighter jets flew overhead. Cannons fired a 21-gun salute, as they did at U.S. military installations all along the East Coast at the start of the Washington funeral. The bells at the Washington National Cathedral tolled 40 times for the nation's 40th president at the end of the service there, with churches across the nation doing the same.
"We lost Ronald Reagan only days ago, but we have missed him for a long time," President Bush said, referring to the former president's decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease. "Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us."
