Ford to get toned-down state funeral

WASHINGTON – Less pomp, more circumstance.

Gerald R. Ford’s state funeral is missing some of the grandeur of the one for Ronald Reagan two years ago, a reflection of the 38th president’s modest ways and lesser imprint on the nation, according to further planning details released Thursday.

President Bush will not attend weekend ceremonies including a Capitol Rotunda service, but he will return to Washington, D.C., from his Texas ranch Monday, pay respects to Ford while his remains lie in state at the Capitol, and speak Tuesday at services for Ford at the National Cathedral. Bush declared Tuesday a national day of mourning.

Ford created a posthumous buzz with the release of interviews critical of Bush that he gave to two newspapers on condition they not be published at the time.

He told the Washington Post in 2004 and the New York Daily News in May that Bush was mistaken in his rationale for going to war against Iraq. He also said he was “dumbfounded” when he learned of Bush’s domestic surveillance program.

If some of the formalities are toned down, Ford’s goodbye is packed with events tied to the touchstones of his life.

A prayer service and public viewing today in Palm Desert, Calif., near Ford’s retirement haven for 30 years, begins a five-day chain of ceremonies that includes two funeral services in Washington, D.C.; yet another, in Grand Rapids, Mich., adopted hometown of the Nebraska native; and additional commemorations in the Capitol.

Some of the most regal touches of a state funeral – those most burned in the consciousness of Americans old enough to remember the clicking hooves and the faces of grief of John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession – are being bypassed, by request of his family and, most likely, according to Ford’s own wishes. They are:

“The caisson, a converted cannon wagon drawn by six horses of the same color. Ford’s casket will be driven by hearse instead.

“The riderless horse, which follows the caisson, with boots reversed in the stirrups of the empty saddle.

“The flyover of 21 fighter aircraft, with one executing the “missing man” maneuver. Instead, a flyover will happen in Grand Rapids, where Ford spent most of his childhood and practiced law before representing the city in Congress for 25 years.