George H.W. Bush’s last words
His last words were for Dubya
A devoted family man as well as a respected statesman throughout his life, former President George H.W. Bush made his last words a message of love.
“I love you, too,” he told his eldest son, former President George W. Bush, in a phone call Friday night.
George H.W. Bush, who was 94, died shortly after in his Houston home with family and friends at his side, reports said. The cause of death had not been released.
The two Bushes made history as the first father-son presidential duo since 1825, when John Quincy Adams followed his father, John Adams, to the White House.
“He was a terrific guy, and he’ll be missed,” President Trump said after designating this coming Wednesday as a national day of mourning. “He led a full life and a very exemplary life, too.”
The day of mourning will be part of an extended tribute to Bush planned for this week.
Trump issued a proclamation ordering federal installations around the world to fly flags at half-staff until Dec. 29 for a 30-day period of honor. He ordered all government agencies closed Wednesday.
He also said that upon his landing in Washington from the G-20 summit in Argentina on Sunday, he will send Air Force One to pick up Bush’s casket from Houston and bring it to the Capital.
A state funeral at the National Cathedral will follow. Trump and First Lady Melania will attend, the White House said.
Bush — whose long career of public service included stints as a vice president, CIA director, UN ambassador and congressman — is scheduled to lie in state in the Capitol from Monday evening to Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced. He will be the 12th president to follow the custom.
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will both be closed Wednesday in a traditional show of respect that was last observed in 2007, after the death of former President Gerald Ford.
Messages of praise and appreciation for Bush poured in from around the world Saturday.
“He’s the father, or one of the fathers, of the German unification,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “And we will never forget that.”
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Bush’s first year as president, marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the first step toward a reunited Germany.
Mikhail Gorbachev, who led the Soviet Union at that time, said he “deeply appreciated the attention, kindness and simplicity typical of George and Barbara Bush.”
The two leaders negotiated major arms-control agreements in the USSR’s final months, and Bush continued pursuing peace with Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin.
The Dalai Lama delivered a fond appreciation to the Bush family.
“He was, in fact, the first American president that I was privileged to meet,” it read. “I recall being deeply touched by your father’s concern for the Tibetan people and the situation in Tibet.”
American politicians from both sides of the aisle joined the chorus.
“Duty, sacrifice, commitment and patriotism,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “That is what President Bush preached and what he lived.”
McConnell (R-Ky.) called Bush “a great American statesman, a role model that everyone could look up to, who lived an extraordinary life.”
“Nobody was loved by more people than he was,” he added.
And Democratic former President Jimmy Carter said: “His administration was marked by grace, civility and social conscience. He espoused a uniquely American volunteer spirit.”
Bush’s vice president, Dan Quayle, wrote a tribute calling him “a man of calm and measured judgment.”