Hero’s farewell for US senator
THOUSANDS of people joined the family of John McCain to pay their respects to the late US senator in the Arizona capital yesterday.
Mourners stood for hours in searing heat before filing past Mr McCain’s casket in the Arizona Capitol building.
An earlier private service marked the first appearance of his family since the Republican senator died on Saturday of brain cancer. Mr McCain’s tearful wife Cindy pressed her face against the casket while his daughter Meghan wept openly as she said goodbye.
The ceremony began two days of mourning in Arizona before his body is taken to Washington for a viewing at the US Capitol, followed by burial at the US Naval Academy in Maryland.
Governor Doug Ducey remembered Mr McCain as “Arizona’s favourite adopted son” on what would have been his 82nd birthday.
For some Arizona residents, McCain has been a political fixture their entire lives. He took office in the state in the early 1980s, first as a congressman and then as a senator. “Imagining an Arizona without John McCain is like picturing Arizona without the Grand Canyon,” Mr Ducey said.