Denmark's Queen Mother Mourned

Red-and-white flags flew at half-staff and a carpet of cut flowers outside the royal palace in downtown Copenhagen grew larger Wednesday as Denmark mourned the death of its beloved Queen Mother Ingrid.

Ingrid, a Swedish princess who married into Denmark's royalty, died Tuesday at the age of 90, surrounded by her three daughters Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte and former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece and 10 grandchildren.

Guns at the main naval base in Copenhagen and on all naval vessels at sea fired a traditional 81-round salute. Hundreds of Danes filed past the palace, adding flowers and candles to a makeshift memorial that was about 16 feet long and six feet wide by morning.

Close relatives declared a mourning period until Dec. 4 and planned a private ceremony Wednesday evening at Fredensborg Castle north of the capital, where Ingrid died.

Across the Scandinavian nation of 5.3 million people, flags flew at half-staff on homes, public buildings and ships in mooring.

Ingrid's body will lie in state for three days, starting Saturday, at the chapel at the parliament building to let Danes bid farewell to the popular dowager queen.

The casket will be carried by a horse-drawn carriage through Copenhagen on Tuesday, then taken by train to the cathedral at Roskilde, 25 miles west of Copenhagen, the resting place of 38 Danish kings and queens.

Ingrid will be buried next to her husband, King Frederik IX, who died in 1972.

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria and Norway's King Harald were among those planning to attend the funeral.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Ingrid was the only daughter of Sweden's King Gustaf VI Adolf, a great-granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria and an aunt of King Carl.

She entered Europe's oldest royal house in 1935 after she married Denmark's future King Frederik. Ingrid stepped out of the limelight after his death but remained active into old age and was patron to some 40 social welfare and aid organizations.

"She was a woman who cared a lot," Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen told The Associated Press. "At official dinners, she would always ask me in private how my old mother was doing. Or how elderly people in our society were doing after hearing about a debate (in parliament) on the issue."

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