Trump announces a day of mourning
Bush to lie in state from Monday to Wednesday; funeral in Houston still being planned
Five days after the death of the nation’s 41st president, Americans will observe a day of mourning this Wednesday for George H.W. Bush.
The day, announced by President Donald Trump on Saturday, will honor the 94-year-old former president who died Friday night. Tributes poured in across the globe in the hours after the passing of Bush, who marked major birthday milestones late in life by catapulting out of airplanes, formed an unlikely friendship with Bill Clinton and was known as a compassionate soul.
“A state funeral is being arranged with all of the accompanying support and honors,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “The president will designate Wednesday, Dec. 5 as a National Day Of Mourning. He and the first lady will attend the funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.”
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq announced they will be closed Wednesday for the day, according to media reports. While previous days of mourning for U.S. presidents have coincided with funerals, details and timing of Bush’s funeral service were still being worked out Saturday.
Bush will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol, congressional leaders announced Saturday. The public will be able to pay its respects from 7:30 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Texas officials confirmed that ceremonies are also in the works in the former president’s hometown of Houston and in College Station, Texas, the site of his presidential library. His wife, Barbara, and their daughter Robin, who died at age 3, are buried there.
Days of mourning are recognition given to a select few – in the U.S. usually commanders in chief – and involve memorial activities, flying of flags at halfstaff and other remembrances.
In 2006, Bush declared a national day of mourning to mark the death of former president Gerald Ford at 93. The federal government was shuttered and financial markets were closed. The day of mourning was marked on the day of Ford’s funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral on Jan. 2, 2007.
Two years earlier, in 2004, Bush ordered a tribute to former president Ronald Reagan who died at 93 at his Bel Air home after a decadelong battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Even former president Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace in the face of impeachment in 1974, was recognized with a similar tribute upon his death at 81 in 1994. President Bill Clinton declared a day of national mourning. Flags at government buildings and embassies flew at half-staff for 30 days.