Free Republic

Margaret Thatcher’s spectacular ceremonial funeral cost the taxpayer just £1.2 million ($1.8 million), just a fraction of the sum claimed by left-wing opponents. The final bill for the ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral was revealed by ministers today in a rebuff to critics who suggested the costs would top £10 million ($15.4 million). Officials said that detailed work on the price of security, policing, staff overtime and hiring the Cathedral meant the total was much lower than early estimates suggested. …

The British government says former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral cost taxpayers £3.6 million ($5.6 million), mostly for security. … Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said Thursday that Thatcher’s family was paying the cost of the undertaker and flowers for the funeral. …

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary December 28, 2006 National Day of Mourning for Gerald R. Ford       Remembering President Gerald R. Ford (1913-2006) As a further mark of respect to the memory of Gerald R. Ford, the thirty-eighth President of the United States, NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of Gerald R. Ford, and as an expression of public sorrow, do appoint Tuesday, January 2, 2007, as...

CROCODILE Hunter Steve Irwin's family say they have formally declined a state funeral and will hold a private service within the next seven days. Irwin's father Robert Irwin today also said a memorial service would be held in honour of his son within the next two weeks at an undecided location. Mr Irwin said the family had decided to hold a private funeral for family and close friends only. On behalf of the grief-stricken Irwin family, Mr Irwin read the details from a written statement to a media throng outside the family's wildlife park Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

STEVE Irwin will get a state funeral if that's what his family wants, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says. The 44-year-old media personality and environmentalist conservationist died yesterday when a stingray barb punctured his heart while he was filming a nature documentary off the coast of Port Douglas in north Queensland.

Irwin family offered state funeralSTEVE Irwin will get a state funeral if that's what his family wants, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie says. The 44-year-old media personality and environmentalist died yesterday when a stingray barb punctured his heart while he was filming a nature documentary off the coast of Port Douglas in north Queensland.... Asked if his government would honour Irwin with a state funeral, Mr Beattie replied: "We will honour Steve Irwin in whatever way his family wants." But first it was important to let his wife Terry and two young children, who recently returned to Queensland from Tasmania, deal...

I am sorry for the vanity, but I hope that by posting it on a Friday night that I do as little damage to the forum as possible. There was an amazingly beautiful hymn performed at Reagan's State Funeral that I can't get out of my head, one that I wish to add to my personal collection. It is a marvelous performance that culminates with the grand organ adding itself to the youth choir that opened the hymn, adding depth and weight to the life they were celebrating. Can anyone in freeperdom help me identify it, and possibly point me...

<p>Here is a collection of the eulogies delivired by the various speakers.</p>

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL Washington National Cathedral 11 June 2004 at 11:30 am RONALD WILSON REAGAN Fortieth President of the United States 1911-2004 Celebrant The Reverend John C. Danforth Participants The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane Bishop of Washington and Dean of the Cathedral The Right Reverend A. Theodore Eastman Vicar, Washington National Cathedral His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick Catholic Archbishop of Washington His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America Imam Mohammad Magid Ali Imam and Director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society Readers Rabbi Harold Kushner The Honorable...

WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of Americans are streaming through the Capitol Rotunda, undeterred by sweltering heat, to pay their final respects to Ronald Reagan (news - web sites). The public viewing goes on continuously until Friday morning. Capitol Police weren't giving out official crowd estimates. But 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 approximately 106,000 to view the president during a 33-hour period at the Reagan library in California. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said at daybreak that...

MRS. REAGAN, PATTI, RON, MICHAEL, DISTINGUISHED GUESTS, MEMBERS OF THE REAGAN FAMILY, AND FRIENDS OF RONALD REAGAN IN AMERICA AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD: TONIGHT, PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN HAS RETURNED TO THE PEOPLE’S HOUSE TO BE HONORED BY MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO LOVED HIM. SINCE 1824, UNDER THIS ROTUNDA, OUR NATION HAS PAID FINAL TRIBUTE TO MANY DEDICATED PUBLIC SERVANTS. PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO LIE IN STATE UNDER THIS CAPITOL DOME. IN THE COMING DAYS, THOUSANDS WILL COME TO THESE HALLOWED HALLS TO SAY GOOD-BYE TO ANOTHER SON OF ILLINOIS WHO, LIKE LINCOLN, APPEALED TO OUR BEST...

By The Associated Press (AP) - Details about the funeral of Ronald Reagan. All times are EDT:WEDNESDAY:_11 a.m.: Nancy Reagan and family arrive at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif._11:15 a.m.: Departure ceremony at the library._11:30 a.m.: Reagan family motorcade departs library for Point Mugu Naval Air Station._Noon: Departure ceremony at air station._12:30 p.m.: Aircraft departs Point Mugu for Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington._5 p.m.: Aircraft arrives at Andrews._6 p.m.: Formal funeral procession to Capitol, with casket transfer from hearse onto horse-drawn caisson at 1600 Constitution Avenue. The caisson will continue east on Constitution toward the west...

June 7, 2004 -- The state funeral for former President Ronald Reagan will occur in three phases: Phases 1 and 3 are executed in the greater Los Angeles area. Phase 2 takes place in Washington, D.C. The commanding general of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, Maj. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, is responsible for making all ceremonial arrangements for the funeral in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the continental United States. Capt. Paul S. Grossgold, commanding officer of Naval Base Ventura County at Point Mugu, Calif., will assist Maj. Gen. Jackman by coordinating administrative and logistical support in the...

June 6, 2004 -- By law, former presidents are afforded a state funeral upon demise. While the general sequence of a state funeral is shaped by regulation and tradition, each event is also uniquely shaped by the family’s desires. Once the president officially announces the demise of a former commander-in-chief, he then joins the nation in offering condolences. The Secretary of Defense is then directed to conduct the funeral on behalf of the nation. In turn, he designates the Secretary of the Army, who oversees the nation's senior military service, to be his representative. The Secretary of the Army further...