PRESIDENT BUSH’S FUNERAL BEING HELD TODAY
A funeral for the late President George H.W. Bush takes place today in the National Cathedral in Washington, with President Trump and former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and even Jimmy Carter — at 94 the same age as the late Bush.
Gov. Charlie Baker, a centrist Republican like the 41st president, will also attend the funeral before returning to the Bay State tonight.
“President George H. W. Bush was a devoted public servant who served our country for decades in vast capacities and our hearts break to learn of his passing,” Baker said after Bush, 94, died Friday. “We will not only remember his incredible legacy as a war hero and our 41st President, but celebrate his humble, kind and ambitious spirit that will be sorely missed.”
Soldiers, citizens in wheelchairs and long lines of others on foot wound through the hushed Capitol Rotunda yesterday to view Bush’s casket. His service dog Sully was allowed to stay by the casket in the morning.
Eulogists at the funeral will include the late president’s son former President George W. Bush, as well as former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and presidential historian Jon Meacham.
People lined up before dawn today to pay respects to the 41st president, a son and father of privilege now celebrated by everyday citizens for his common courtesies and depth of experience.
Former Kansas U.S. Sen. Bob Dole was helped out of his wheelchair by an aide, slowly steadied himself and saluted Bush with his left hand, his chin quivering. Dole’s right arm was disabled by German machine gun fire in Italy in World War II. Bush, a Navy pilot, survived a bail-out from his stricken aircraft over the Pacific and an earlier crash landing. Dole and Bush were fellow Republican Party leaders, fierce rivals for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination that Bush won.
Dignitaries had come forward on Monday, too, to honor the Texan whose service to his country extended three quarters of a century, from World War II through his final years as an advocate for volunteerism and relief for people displaced by natural disaster. Bush, 94, died Friday.
After today’s service in Washington, Bush’s remains will be returned to Houston to lie in repose at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church before burial Thursday at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place will be alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years who died in April, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia in 1953 at age 3.
Trump has ordered the federal government closed today as a national day of mourning. Flags on public buildings well fly at halfstaff for 30 days.