News Article " President Bush declares Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 as a day of mourning." [Article ID: 38]
Category: National>Events
Date Posted: 12/29/2006
PALM DESERT, Calif. - Military pallbearers carried the flag-drapped casket of Gerald R. Ford past his widow and children Friday afternoon and into the church where the late president had attended services for years and had his own “President’s Pew.” Former first lady Betty Ford, 88, stood at the top of the steps of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church to receive the casket, then followed it inside as a Marine Corps band played “Ruffles and Flourishes” and the hymn “O God Our Help in Ages Past.” Honoring Ford’s Navy service, a sailor was deputized to fly the presidential seal from an ebony staff.
Inside the church, the casket was placed before three floral wreathes, with an hornor guard at its side. Betty Ford was escorted to the front by an Army general and followed by her family. The private family prayer service, the first in six days of formal mourning, was to be followed by a public viewing at the church that was expected to draw thousands to the resort community east of Los Angeles. Security was tight, with helicopters hovering overhead. The Secret Service swept the area, and surrounding residential streets were blocked off. A quiet crowd watched from well beyond the parking lot of the church where Ford and his wife had worshipped nearly every Sunday since 1977. To D.C., then Grand Rapids After the viewing, Betty Ford planned to accompany her husband’s body across the nation for ceremonies in Washington and then in Grand Rapids, Mich., where the former president grew up and will be entombed on Wednesday.
Ford, who assumed the presidency when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal, died Tuesday at 93 with his family at his bedside. In his honor, the six days of formal mourning will include a day of silence on Wall Street, with the major stock markets closed Tuesday, the day of Ford’s funeral service at the National Cathedral. The Wall Street tradition dates to the 1885 burial of President Grant and was last observed after President Reagan’s death in 2004. Other U.S. financial markets were expected to close for at least part of the day Tuesday to honor Ford. And mail service will be suspended Tuesday, the U.S. Postal Service announced. President Bush has ordered federal agencies to close that day out of respect for Ford.
As a result of the President's declaration of January 2nd, Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority in accordance with it's personnel policies will also observe this day and will close its doors. Normal business hours will resume on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007.
