Ronald Reagan was laid to rest in the rolling California hills that he loved on Friday in a sunset ceremony that ended a week of national mourning for the 40th president -- the last chapter of what President George W. Bush called "a great American story."
Hundreds of close friends and family paid a final farewell to Reagan, whose passing at age 93 stirred an outpouring of emotion from a nation nostalgic for his warmth, charm and optimism.
PHOTO: AFP
At the burial ceremony at the Reagan Presidential library, a lone bagpiper played Amazing Grace, US navy jets flew overhead in what is called a "Missing Man Formation" and an honor guard presented widow Nancy Reagan with the flag that had draped his coffin for his last journey home.
She dabbed her eyes, hugged the flag to her chest and then walked to the coffin, placed her cheek on the polished wood and began to weep as her children Ron and Patti comforted her.
The frail 82-year-old widow placed a single kiss on the coffin and reluctantly allowed herself to be led away so that the burial service could be concluded.
In contrast to the formal, state funeral service held earlier in the day in Washington, DC, where President Bush told an assembly of world leaders that "a great American story" had ended, Reagan's burial was a family affair attended by some 700 close friends, many of them people the late president had known since his days as a Hollywood actor.
In short but moving speeches, his three surviving children spoke lovingly of the man they knew as a father rather than a world leader and celebrated his humor and odd habits like pulling a stranger's earlobe.
"He is home now. He is free. In his final letter to the American people, Dad wrote, `I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life.' This evening he has arrived," his youngest son Ronald Prescott Reagan said, briefly touching his father's flag draped coffin.
"History will record his worth as a leader. We here have long since measured his worth as a man," he added.
Michael Reagan, the son he adopted during his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, told the crowd his father once gave him marital advice: "You'll never get in trouble if you tell her `I love you' once a day. I am sure that he told that to Nancy."
Daughter Patti Davis told how her father, when she was a young girl, gave such a touching burial service for a pet goldfish that she offered to kill all the other fish in the tank and he had to spend a lot of time dissuading her.
The ceremony concluded with the playing of "Taps" and a flyover by US navy jets.
Among those in attendance at the burial service were Margaret Thatcher, Reagan's political soul-mate, as well as ex-US Secretary of State George Shultz and such celebrities as Nancy Sinatra, Tom Selleck, Merv Griffin, Bo Derek and Larry King. Also there was another actor inspired to go into politics by Reagan's example -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Selleck, who worked with Nancy Reagan on her "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign, said the national wave of emotion of the past week "would mean a lot to him. ... I think he would be touched in his own self-effacing way."
CNN's Larry King, a personal friend although at odds with Reagan politically, said "He didn't hate. I think one of the reasons people are acting this way this week is they miss that."
In a touch typical of California, many at the burial service wore sunglasses. And many sobbed.
In the week since Reagan died more than 150,000 people, in Simi Valley and in Washington, D.C., have filed passed his flag-covered casket as his body lie in state.
As the casket carried Reagan home to southern California for the final time on Friday afternoon, throngs of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the motorcade, some waving flags or dabbing tears from their eyes.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
RSS