Tens of thousands wait in line to say last goodbye to the Gipper
WASHINGTON – From Boy Scouts to Supreme Court justices, tens of thousands of Americans filed solemnly past Ronald Reagan’s casket at the Capitol on Thursday, a quiet prelude to a majestic funeral shaped by his own hand. Visitors from the Reagan-era ranks of power and friendship flocked to his widow’s side.
World leaders including his long-ago Soviet rival Mikhail Gorbachev were among those who gazed upon his casket in hushed contemplation under the Capitol Dome. President Bush, back from his meeting with world leaders in Georgia, briefly paid respects in advance of his eulogy for the 40th president at Washington National Cathedral today.
Across from the White House, Nancy Reagan received a stream of visitors drawn from a list of the powerful, then and now.
“To Ronnie,” former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, first to see Mrs. Reagan, wrote in the Blair House condolence book. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Reagan and Thatcher shared a world view, conservative politics and enduring mutual affection.
Joanne Drake, chief of staff of the Reagan office, said Mrs. Reagan was “doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances” and was greatly comforted by the outpouring of support.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who shared an Irish ancestry with Reagan, also visited the former first lady, with his wife, Mila.
The former British and Canadian leaders were joining Bush and his father today in eulogizing Reagan to close the curtain on the capital’s elaborate state funeral – Washington’s last goodbye before Reagan’s sunset burial on the grounds of his presidential library outside Los Angeles. Besides the first President Bush, the other living former presidents were expected, too: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Bush and his wife, Laura, paused by Reagan’s casket in the Capitol Rotunda, bowed their heads and closed their eyes. The president swept his hands along the flag-draped casket and the couple left to visit Mrs. Reagan. They spent about 40 minutes with her at Blair House, then returned to the White House.
Bush praised Reagan as a “great man, a historic leader and a national treasure.” He would not say if he supported efforts to put Reagan’s image on currency, adding that after the funeral “I will reflect on further ways to honor a great president.”
Reagan’s Soviet rival-turned-friend, Gorbachev, visited, too, and wrote in the condolence book in Russian, “I convey my deep feelings of condolence to dear Nancy and the whole family.”
Gorbachev then visited Reagan’s casket in the Rotunda, reaching out and briefly laying his palm on it.
The Capitol sergeant at arms office, which oversees security in the building, estimated 30,000 people had viewed the casket in the first 10 hours of Reagan’s lying in state. His casket was continuously on view until this morning.
Several thousand people stood in a line that snaked along the western end of Capitol Hill and around the Capitol reflecting pool, many writing in a condolence book. Large fans helped cool those waiting in the steamy heat, and bottled water was available. Inside the cool of the building were long, separate lines for congressional staff.
“He did so many great things for our country and I remember a happy and optimistic time for America,” Barbara Coward, 37, of Timonium, Md., scribbled in the book. “He made me proud to be an American.”