| Farewell fit for a legend | ||
| As Prez, he scripted his own bicoastal rites | ||
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Posted on 06/07/2004 1:50:58 AM PDT by kattracks
WASHINGTON - Ronald Reagan's state funeral will take place on two coasts over five days with elaborate ceremonies that the former President planned himself more than 20 years ago.Along with the traditional muffled drum, riderless horse and stately black-draped caisson, Reagan added several slow motorcade rides so people could line the streets to say goodbye.
"President Reagan was a man of the people," said his longtime chief of staff, Joanne Drake. "It was really important to him that people have an opportunity to pay their respects, if they wanted. He worked really hard to work a California phase in, in addition to the Washington ceremony."
Reagan, a former movie actor, was also a canny showman and the funeral will boast the most pomp and pageantry Washington has seen in 30 years - since the funeral for Lyndon Johnson in 1973.
Famed TV mogul Merv Griffin, an old friend, will be one of the pallbearers.
Tributes, flowers and gifts of Reagan's signature jellybeans were pouring in from around the world to the Santa Monica funeral home where the 40th President's body lay.
Reagan died Saturday in California with his wife of 52 years, Nancy, and children Patti Davis and Ron Reagan by his side after an agonizing decade-long decline into the final fogs of Alzheimer's disease.
His other son, Michael, had spent the day with him Friday but was held up in traffic and got to his bedside a few minutes after he died, Drake said.
The family was in seclusion, fielding phone calls from friends, politicians and world leaders. "They're taking some downtime," Drake said.
"I'm not sure there's been a whole lot of sleep in that household for the last couple of days," she added. "It's going to be a hard six days ahead of them."
At another point, Drake referred to Nancy's constant nursing of Reagan during his long decline and said, "It's been a very hard 10 years for her."
Among those who called early were President Bush, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Sen. John McCain, the Rev. Billy Graham and Charlton Heston, an old friend who is now in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
Graham was to have officiated at Friday's funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, but he is ailing and cannot.
Instead, ex-Sen. John Danforth, an Episcopal minister whom Bush just nominated as ambassador to the United Nations, will take charge.
The funeral planning began in 1981, during Reagan's first year in office, a custom that developed after President Kennedy's 1963 assassination sent unprepared aides digging frantically in the national archives for protocol guidelines.
"Every President is expected to create funeral plans," Drake said, adding that what Reagan settled on is "long, it's traditional, it's a beautiful ceremony."
Reagan's body will be taken today to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., where the family plans a private ceremony.
Reagan's closed casket will be placed in the library's lobby, where members of the public can file past to pay their respects through tomorrow evening.
On Wednesday, the casket will be flown aboard a presidential jet to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington for a formal funeral procession to the Capitol. As the cortege reaches 1600 Constitution Ave. at 6p.m., the coffin will be transferred to a horse-drawn gun carriage for the final mile to the Capitol building.
The slow, solemn beat of a single muffled drum will set the pace. A riderless horse will follow behind, symbolizing that the warrior has fallen and will ride no more.
A funeral ceremony will be held in the Capitol Rotunda at 7 p.m., and the ex-President then will lie in state under the vast dome throughout the night and the following day. The casket will remain closed.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to line up to file past.
On Friday, Reagan's casket will be taken to the National Cathedral for the formal funeral service. Bush will speak.
Most, if not all, of the ex-Presidents are expected to attend, along with several of the heads of state arriving in the U.S. for tomorrow's G8 summit in Georgia.
The casket will make a final plane trip back to the Reagan library on Friday. The former President will be buried privately as the sun sets into the Pacific, at a "pristine site overlooking the ocean, underneath the oak trees," Drake said.
The crypt is carved with a quote Reagan selected "that will be disclosed on Friday," said former chief of staff Fred Ryan.
Mourning Ronald Reagan
Today
11 a.m. Private family service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.
Noon The body lies in state in the library’s main lobby.
Tomorrow
The body lies in state at the library.
Wednesday
The body is flown to Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington.
A formal funeral procession to the Capitol Rotunda, where the body lies in state from 8 p.m. through the night.
Thursday
The body lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
Friday
Funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral.
The body is flown back to California.
Sunset burial at the Reagan Presidential Library.
Originally published on June 7, 2004
| Farewell fit for a legend | ||
| As Prez, he scripted his own bicoastal rites | ||
|
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Reagan took risks and won Frank J. Donatelli: Presidents who accomplish great things are not afraid of risk. On the contrary, they welcome it. They realize that presidential popularity is not to be hoarded like poker chips during a game. Ronald Reagan was a risk taker and a President for the ages. FULL STORY |
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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/special/index.htm
Related Stories |
| » Click here for full coverage of the life and death of Ronald Reagan |
| June 7, 2004 -- In a revealing and heartfelt essay, NANCY REAGAN remembers President Ronald Reagan, the remarkable man she loved as a husband — and tells what inspired the man whom a nation came to love as a leader. Written before his death, the essay appears in this week's Time magazine. |
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NANCY: 'I THINK THEY BROKE THE MOLD WHEN THEY MADE RONNIE'
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