Baker: Better appreciation for vets after funeral
Bush transported through small-town Texas on train
Gov. Charlie Baker came away from the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush with a newfound appreciation for the generation of veterans who fought in World War II and Korea, many of them now in their 80s and 90s, he said.
“They lived in a very different world and a very different time than those of us who came after them and I think that’s actually a really big deal,” Baker said yesterday.
Baker, who traveled to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to attend the state funeral, pointed to a speech by presidential biographer Jon Meacham, in which he referred to Bush as the “last great soldier-statesman.”
“I hadn’t really thought about it quite like that until I watched what played out down there yesterday,” Baker said.
The tributes that were delivered by all the speakers were “incredibly personal,” Baker said, and made the event “personal,” “heartfelt” and “particularly special and unique.”
Baker recalled the first time he met the 41st president while working on John Connally’s campaign in 1980, when the former Texas governor wounded in the Kennedy assassination was vying for the GOP presidential nomination.
“He could not have been nicer and more gracious to a 20-year-old who didn’t know nothing about nothing than he was to me and to everybody else and that is, I think in some respects, one of his lasting legacies,” Baker said. “He really was one of those people who basically found time to make a lot of things personal that most people don’t, especially those in public life.”
Bush’s family and friends praised his faith, humility and patience at his funeral yesterday, saying the former president embodied cour- age and grace along with his unique brand of humor and kindness as days of national mourning in Washington took on a more personal feel during a final Texas farewell.
The funeral was held at Houston’s St. Martin’s Episcopal Church where the 41st president and his family regularly worshipped. After the services, a special funeral train carried Bush’s remains through small towns to the family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station.
His final resting place is alongside his wife, Barbara, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia at age 3.
Yesterday’s flavor was distinctly Texas. In place of most Washington dignitaries were top Houston athletes, including the NFL’s Texans’ defensive end J.J. Watt — displaying Bush’s love for sports — and Chuck Norris, who played TV’s “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
The St. Martin’s Parish Choir performed “This is My Country,” which was also sung at Bush’s presidential inauguration in 1989. Those gathered also heard a prayer stressing the importance of service and selflessness that the president himself offered for the country at the start of his term.