The public viewing drew tens of thousands of admirers, including young Boy Scouts who saluted the flag-draped casket and children born long after Ford's 2›-year presidency.

Julie Setlock was up before dawn today, adjusting a football with the words "A true American and hometown hero" at a makeshift memorial outside the museum.

The 37-year-old from nearby Rockford had arrived last night with her three children to view the late president's casket, but the lines were so long, she decided to try again this morning. Even at 2 a.m (HST)., she faced a 30-minute wait.

"It's not very often you have an opportunity to pay respect to a president, so I couldn't pass it up," said Bill Kleinhans, a Grand Rapids business owner who was also in line early today.

An afternoon service for Ford was planned today at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids, and then his body was to be interred during a private burial on the museum grounds overlooking the Grand River, the final step in nearly a week of official mourning.

Donald Rumsfeld, who served in Ford's cabinet as his chief of staff and as his defense secretary, was to deliver a eulogy. Former President Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in 1976 but later became a close friend of his former opponent, and Richard Norton Smith, who used to be the director of the Ford museum and presidential library, also were scheduled to speak.

Ford, who became the nation's 38th president after Richard Nixon resigned, died Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 93.

Yesterday, people jammed streets and waved as Ford's casket was carried from the Grand Rapids airport, where it arrived following services at Washington National Cathedral.

"You were a paradoxical gift of remarkable intellect and achievement wrapped in a plain brown wrapper," Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said of Ford. "Welcome home to the people that you reflected so well when you were in Washington."

Some people waiting in the 30-degree temperatures to pay respects to the late president wore sweat shirts from the University of Michigan, where Ford played center on the Wolverines' undefeated national championship football teams of 1932 and 1933.

Yesterday's elaborate national funeral service in Washington drew 3,000 people. President Bush and his father spoke yesterday, as did NBC newsman Tom Brokaw and Ford's secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, among others.

"In President Ford, the world saw the best of America, and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation's history," President Bush said in his eulogy.

Bush's father, the first President Bush, called Ford a "Norman Rockwell painting come to life" and cracked gentle jokes about Ford's reputation as an errant golfer.

Kissinger paid tribute to Ford's leadership in achieving nuclear arms control with the Soviets, pushing for the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt and helping to bring majority rule to southern Africa.

"In his understated way he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery," Kissinger said. "Gerald Ford had the virtues of small town America."