News Article " Former President Ronald W. Reagan dies! Tens of Thousands come to mourn the loss of a great individual" [Article ID: 3]
Category: National>Political
Date Posted: 6/9/2004
WASHINGTON - Some came in limousines and dark suits, others in shorts and T-shirts. And by early Thursday, tens of thousands had passed by the casket of Ronald Reagan, paying tribute to the nation's 40th president as he lay in state under a soaring Capitol dome where Americans once said goodbye to Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
Boy Scouts in khaki shorts and neckerchiefs, office workers with ID tags around their necks, tourists with children in tow and a native American in a feathered headdress all came to pay their respects and slowly file past Reagan’s casket, draped in the stars and stripes of the American flag. “Getting them up this morning was hard, but I think they’ll look back on it as something they’ll remember,” said Susan Frays, who roused her three sons at 4 a.m. Thursday to make the trip into Washington from nearby Waldorf, Md. The family waited in line 21/2 hours for their turn in the Capitol Rotunda.
Nancy Reagan, resting at Blair House, the official guest residence across the street from the White House, planned to meet privately with dignitaries including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker and his wife, former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker. “She plans to have a quiet day,” said spokeswoman Grier Flinn. In Reagan’s hometown of Dixon, Ill., the former president was remembered at a memorial service Thursday as one who never lost his small-town roots.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican whose district includes Dixon, said at the service there, “Millions of people walk in freedom. Why? Because Ronald Reagan stepped forward.” Official Washington hailed Reagan as “a graceful and gallant man,” in Vice President Dick Cheney’s words. on Wednesday night. Hastert, speaking earlier in the day at the beginning of the 34-hour period of Reagan’s lying in state, said, “It is altogether fitting and proper that he has returned to this Capitol Rotunda, like another great son of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, so the nation can say goodbye.”
5,000 an hour paying respects
The public in the Rotunda, a room ringed with statues of some of his predecessors and paintings depicting the founding of the nation, viewing goes on continuously until Friday morning. An estimated 5,000 people were viewing the casket every hour. Visitors split into two columns as they entered the viewing area, filing around both sides of the casket in a process that roughly doubled the pace that enabled some 106,000 to view the former president during a 33-hour period at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
Reagan's casket, in the center of the room, rests beneath what he was fond of describing as “that big white dome, bulging with new tax revenues,” in his frequent criticism of the Congress. But the scolding was forgotten as lawmakers and common citizens alike paid tribute to the 40th president. Donna Hand of Ashburn, Va., waited five hours to see the casket and spent about three minutes inside. “It was a very moving experience for me. It was very solemn,” Hand said. “It made you feel patriotic.” “I thought he was a great leader” said George Ford of Cabin John, Md. “He was just a great guy. He told you like it was.”
Carol Williams of Chesterfield, Va., said she stood in line for five hours to vote for Reagan in 1984 and drove more than two hours Wednesday to pay her respects. “President Reagan restored dignity and character to the White House. He never wavered in front of the American people,” Williams said. “What less could I do than stand in line for a few hours?” Reagan is only the 30th American and the 10th president ever to lie in state, an honor that began in 1852, when Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky died, according to the Office of the Architect of the Capitol.
Funeral procession
His body was flown in from California Wednesday on one of the presidential jets and brought to the Capitol on a century-old, horse-drawn caisson for an honor last accorded a president in 1973 when Lyndon Johnson died.
Crowds 15 deep watched the procession advance slowly up Constitution Avenue. A riderless horse pulled the caisson with a pair of Reagan’s own brown military officer’s boots reversed in the saddle's stirrups, signifying that he would never ride again. The boots were a favorite pair that Reagan wore frequently while riding at his ranch in California and at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.
More than 150,000 visitors lined the streets in punishing temperatures in the 90s. About 100 people on the National Mall were treated for heat-related illnesses. U.S. Capitol Police trucked in about 150,000 of bottles of water and later turned on large fans for people waiting in line. Cheers broke out briefly for Reagan’s widow, Nancy, riding in a limousine at the head of the procession. She waved repeatedly, looking wan. “God bless you, Nancy,” a man cried out. In her husband’s death as in his life, she was beside him at every step. When his casket reached the landing of the Capitol, she reached out and touched it.
As the service ended, she again drew near, stroking and patting the casket before taking her leave at the end of a long day that began in California. Michael Reagan, the president’s son from his first marriage, kissed the casket before giving a half-salute, half-wave reminiscent of his father. Most members of Congress, much of President Bush’s Cabinet, four Supreme Court justices and a large contingent of diplomats attended the service. Former Vice President Dan Quayle was one of only a few former officials who crowded into the Rotunda.
Source(s): Courtesy MSNBC staff and news service reports
