Arizonans pay final farewell to McCain
PHOENIX:
Arizonans paid their respects to John McCain as the body of the late senator lay in state in the capitol for a final farewell.
“He dedicated his life to serve his country,” former Arizona senator Jon Kyl said on Wednesday during a ceremony in the capitol rotunda in Phoenix attended by McCain’s wife Cindy and children.
“When he saw challenges to its institutions or values, he fought to protect them,” Kyl said.
McCain’s remains were driven to the state capitol in a black hearse escorted by four policemen on motorcycles.
An honour guard made up of veterans, servicemen and members of law enforcement and firefighters greeted the flag-draped casket.
McCain’s daughter Meghan sobbed openly as her father’s casket was placed on the Arizona state seal.
Cindy placed her cheek on the casket and patted it delicately following the intimate ceremony.
The two-time Republican presidential candidate, naval aviator and prisoner-of-war in Vietnam died last Saturday after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
He would have turned 82 on Wednesday.
Following a memorial ceremony at the North Phoenix Baptist Church yesterday, McCain’s remains were flown on a military aircraft to Washington.
They will be on display for a public viewing today in the rotunda of the US Capitol – an honour reserved for the likes of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and civil rights champion Rosa Parks.
The two men who defeated McCain in his White House campaigns, Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and Democrat Barack
Obama in 2008, are to deliver eulo- gies at a service at the National Cathedral in Washington tomorrow. Among the pallbearers will be Democratic former vice-president Joe Biden, ex-senator Russ Feingold, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and actor Warren Beatty. McCain will be buried on Sunday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in a private funeral service.
After coming under pressure from veterans’ groups, President Donald Trump, who had an antagonistic relationship with McCain, ordered flags on Monday to be lowered to half-staff until his burial.
Trump is not expected to attend any of the services but VicePresident Mike Pence is to speak at a ceremony at the US Capitol today.