EX-US presidents, others arrive for Barbara funeral

HOUSTON: Several former US presidents were among the 1,500 mourners expected to gather at a Houston church on Saturday for the funeral of former irst lady Barbara Bush, who died on Tuesday at the age of 92.

Bush, the wife of the 41st president of the United States, George HW Bush, and the mother of the 43rd, George W Bush, will be remembered at an invitation-only service at St Martin’s Episcopal Church, where she and her family have been members since the 1950s.

Among those planning to attend are former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, current irst lady Melania Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former irst lady Michelle Obama.

High-ranking oficials from the elder Bush’s administration, including former Vice President Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney, who served as defense secretary before later becoming George W Bush’s vice president, will also be among the mourners.

President Donald Trump is not expected in Houston.

Bush’s younger son, former Florida governor and 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush, will deliver a eulogy, as will her friend Susan Baker, the wife of former Secretary of State James Baker, and the historian and author Jon Meacham.

Hours before the service’s scheduled start at 11am local time (1600 GMT), security was tight, with bomb-snifing dogs checking media equipment and police oficers searching bags.

Guests arrived at a different church several miles away to be bussed to the venue, walking past a throng of media.

“It was her singular ability to make you feel like you were the most important person in the world when you were talking to her,” Craig Denekas, a member of the board of directors of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, told reporters.

Following Saturday’s service, Bush will be buried on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum at Texas A&M University in College Station, next to her daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of 3.

Members of the public paid their respects on Friday, when Bush lay in repose at the church. The 93-year-old George HW Bush, seated in a wheelchair in front of the casket, greeted mourners in turn with a handshake.