Family bids a tearful goodbye to McCain
PHOENIX — Arizona friends and family of John McCain remembered the late senator at the state capitol Wednesday, with Gov. Doug Ducey telling those assembled that McCain’s “fight for America isn’t over.”
McCain died Saturday of brain cancer.
On what would have been his 82nd birthday, McCain’s body lay in state Wednesday at the Arizona Capitol, where several of his longtime colleagues delivered emotional tributes.
“While we grieve today, as a state and as a nation, John McCain’s fight for America isn’t over,” Ducey said. “It’s a fight all Americans are obligated to continue on his behalf.”
The scene outside the building was a somber one Wednesday as McCain’s casket, draped in an American flag, was carried out of a hearse by six members of the Arizona Army National Guard. McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain, walked behind, arm-in-arm with her sons Jack and Jimmy, who like their father, both served Sons Jimmy, left, and Jack McCain escort their mother, Cindy, to their father’s tribute Wednesday in Phoenix. She later said goodbye at his casket. in the military.
A Navy veteran, McCain is also being honored as a hero for his service during the Vietnam War.
A thick column of whiteuniformed Navy officers and other members of the military stood at attention as the procession made its way forward into the capitol’s rotunda, where one wall bears a quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
Black curtains hung in the rotunda. U.S. and Arizona flags encircled the room.
McCain’s daughter, Meghan, sobbed as the ceremony began, and later broke down in tears as she stood in front of her father’s casket and bid him farewell.
Sen. Jeff Flake, who has spoken emotionally about McCain’s legacy in recent days, delivered the benediction.
Ducey, a Republican, will appoint a successor to the six-term senator who will serve through 2020.
“Imagining Arizona without John McCain is like picturing Arizona without the Grand Canyon,” Ducey said at one point in his remarks. “It’s just not natural.”
In another moment, he drew a smile from Cindy McCain as he recalled the senator joking to him during one of their final conversations. “My biggest challenge is deciding whether to run for re-election in 2020,” he said McCain told him.
After the speeches, Cindy McCain was the first to approach her husband’s casket. She lay one hand on it for half a second, then touched it again and nuzzled her head against it briefly before moving on.
Others followed with their own silent goodbyes.
A separate service will be held Thursday in Phoenix. On Friday, there will be a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. A memorial service will be conducted Sat- urday at Washington National Cathedral, where former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush are among the expected speakers. McCain will be buried Sunday in a private funeral at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
By the time the service ended and the rotunda was cleared, at least 100 people had already gathered outside to wait for the public viewing. Some had traveled for hours from California and elsewhere.
“He was an honorable man, and there aren’t a lot of those,” said Elaine Lewis, who flew in from San Diego for the memorial service.
Lewis, a Democrat, said she believes McCain “saved millions of lives” when he voted last year against repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Kassandra Morales, 44, stood with her sons, 8 and 2 years old. The single mom and Democrat brought a bouquet of flowers and said she had always looked up to McCain.
“Yesterday I asked my son who his hero was. He gave me a rapper's name,” Morales said. “I brought my children here to show them what a real hero was.”