Washington – Amid full military honors and solemn pageantry, the body of former President Ford returned to Washington one last time Saturday, as thousands of Americans began filing past his flag-draped casket in the Capitol Rotunda, where he will lie in state until national memorial services Tuesday.
The ceremonial route Ford’s motorcade took Saturday evening through the nation’s capital reflected highlights of the 38th president’s career, including his wartime service in the Navy, his leadership in his beloved Congress and the presidency he did not seek.
In a brief ceremony in the Rotunda, there were references to Ford’s efforts to pull a shaken country together in the mid-1970s after the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
“In our nation’s darkest hour, Gerald Ford lived his finest moment, guided by his conscience, informed by our history, supported by the love and friendship of his wife, Betty,” said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. “He was the man the hour required.”
The House chaplain presiding over the short service linked that history to today, when the country is torn by war in Iraq.
“Lord, we humbly ask you to grant peace and reconciliation, healing and gentle civility to this nation, as this man so nobly tried to do in life’s singular moments, by his effort to close chapter upon chapter on America’s sadness,” the Rev. Daniel Coughlin said in a prayer before hundreds of Ford family members, diplomats, members of Congress and other dignitaries.
President Bush and former Presidents Bush, Clinton and Carter will lead formal commemoration services Tuesday at Washington National Cathedral. Later that day, Ford’s remains will depart for his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., where he will be buried Wednesday in a private ceremony on the grounds of the presidential museum that bears his name.
On a chilly winter evening in Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney, who served as White House chief of staff in Ford’s administration, led a delegation of honorary pallbearers that met the presidential aircraft that carried Ford’s body from Palm Desert, Calif., where Ford had lived in retirement, to Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington.
Artillery guns sounded a 21-gun salute in Ford’s honor, and the Air Force Band played “Hail to the Chief” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” as a military honor guard bore the remains of the former president across the tarmac and before his widow, Betty Ford, 88, and other family members.
Additional honorary pallbearers – chosen by Ford before his Dec. 26 death at age 93 – included Henry Kissinger, who served as Ford’s national security adviser and secretary of state; and former Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., who was Ford’s running mate during the 1976 elections he lost to Carter.
En route to the Capitol, a 46- vehicle motorcade bearing Ford’s body passed cheering crowds in the suburb of Alexandria, Va., where Ford lived during the quarter-century he served in Congress and during his time as vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973 amid scandal. Ford spent the first few days of his presidency in the modest suburban home.
After crossing the Potomac River, his motorcade paused at the National World War II Memorial, a tribute to Ford’s service in that conflict as a naval gunnery officer on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey in the Pacific Ocean.
With flags flying at half-staff over the Capitol, artillery again pealed a 21-gun salute – the third of the day in Ford’s honor – and the Army Brass Quintet played “America the Beautiful” as the casket was carried up the east front steps.
With a military aide at her side, Betty Ford stood as her husband’s casket passed by en route to the House chamber. It rested for a short period, in honor of Ford’s long service there, before being placed in the Rotunda.
“President Ford proved as worthy of that office as any who have ever come before,” said Cheney in remarks during the ceremony. “He was not just a nice guy … it was this man, Gerald R. Ford, who led our republic safely through a crisis that could have turned into a catastrophe.”
The public was allowed to file past Ford’s casket to pay respects until midnight Saturday.
