Mourners remember John McCain at service
POLITICIAN DIED OF CANCER SATURDAY
Sen. John McCain was eulogized as “a true American hero” — and a terrible driver with a wicked sense of humour — in front of an estimated 3,500 mourners who crowded into an Arizona church to pay their final respects to the maverick politician.
The service unfolded at North Baptist Church after a motorcade bearing McCain’s body made its way from the state capitol past Arizonans waving American flags and campaignstyle signs for the Republican lawmaker.
Family members watched in silence as uniformed military members removed the flag-draped casket from a black hearse and carried it into the church for a service featuring former Vice-President Joe Biden.
McCain died last Saturday of brain cancer at 81.
At the church, a choir from the Jesuit-run Brophy College Preparatory school that two of McCain’s sons attended sang “Amazing Grace.”
McCain’s longtime chief of staff Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, drew laughs with a eulogy in which he talked about McCain’s “terribly bad driving” and his wicked sense of humour, which included calling the Leisure World retirement community “Seizure World.”
Woods recalled the way McCain would introduce him to new staff members by saying, “You’ll have to fire half of them.”
Another friend, Tommy Espinoza, president and CEO of the Raza Development Fund, called McCain “one of the greatest American heroes in our lifetime.” The church’s senior pastor Noe Garcia called McCain “a true American hero.”
Twenty-four sitting U.S. senators, four former senators and other leaders from Arizona were expected at the service for the statesman, former prisoner of war and two-time presidential candidate.
As the 11-vehicle motorcade with a 17-motorcycle police escort made its way along the eight-mile (13kilometre) route, people held signs that read simply “McCain,” and cars on the other side of the highway stopped or slowed to a crawl in apparent tribute.
A few firefighters saluted from atop a fire engine parked on an overpass as the motorcade passed underneath on Interstate 17.