Reagan's Farewell A Rare Gesture

Even as thousands of average people lined up to view his casket on Tuesday, the late President Reagan was soon to receive a most extraordinary honor, even for presidents: to lie in state in the United States capitol.

On Wednesday, Reagan's body is to be flown to Washington, D.C., where there will be a ceremony that night in the Capitol Rotunda.

The body will then lie in state — only the 10th time that honor has been performed for a president, and the 27th instance overall, from 152 years ago with Henry Clay and most recently carried out in 1998, when two Capitol policemen slain by a gunmen were memorialized in the Rotunda.

Dozens of Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force troops — some with bayonets and swords — were rehearsing at the Capitol on Tuesday for their roles in Wednesday's ceremony, when Reagan's casket will be carried into the building. They marched at the West Front of the Capitol, which looks out over the Washington Monument and the National Mall, including the Lincoln Memorial.

Amid the uniformed troops was a horse-drawn caisson, the wagon that will carry the casket, drawn by two dark brown horses and followed by a riderless horse. For Wednesday's ceremonies, that horse will have a pair of empty boots turned backward in the stirrups to symbolize a commander's look back at the troops he will never again command.

Abraham Lincoln lay in state for three days after his 1865 assassination. Following James Garfield and William McKinley, also slain by assassins, came Warren G. Harding, who died in office in 1923.

Since then, the decision of whether a person will be honored in the Rotunda has been made by the family in consultation with congressional leaders.

Other presidents who have lain in state were William Howard Taft, John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower. But the family of Harry S. Truman, who died just a month before Johnson, opted for funeral ceremonies in Missouri. The last to lie in state was Lyndon Johnson, who died in 1973.

Friday will be a national day of mourning, with all federal offices and major financial markets closed. The state funeral will be held at Washington National Cathedral, with President Bush delivering a eulogy.

The body will then be returned to the Reagan library for burial Friday evening.

At the library on Tuesday, more than 40,000 people had viewed the body of the 40th president by morning. So many had lined up that viewing hours were extended.

The flood of mourners caused four-hour traffic delays on the Ronald Reagan Freeway. The library extended the close of viewing from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m.

Reagan, 93, died at home Saturday of pneumonia.

The president's body arrived at the library on Monday, when an honor guard of soldiers, sailors, airmen, coastguardsmen and Marines bore the flag-draped coffin into the library as a Marine Corps band played "Hail to the Chief" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

As former first lady Nancy Reagan looked on, Rev. Michael Wenning, pastor of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, recited the 23rd psalm: "The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want … though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil."

Mrs. Reagan and the president's children placed their hands on the coffin. Patti Davis embraced Mrs. Reagan, crying. The former first lady put her face against the casket.

Over two presidential terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image. He challenged the growing size of government social programs while increasing defense spending and slashing taxes. In foreign affairs, he built the arsenals of war while seeking and achieving arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.

Loved by many, he was loathed by others, especially after figures in his administration were found to have sold weapons to Iran in an effort to free hostages, and illegally diverted some profits to fund anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua. However, Reagan left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.

The thousands of people who waited in line were a cross-section of America: retirees, business people, families, veterans.

Some came in their Sunday best, while others looked ready to hit the beach in shorts and flip-flops. All fell silent at the first glimpse of the flag-draped casket.

"Reagan was truly the people's president and you can see it here," said Maura Ripsen of Anaheim Hills, who came with her husband Steve, son Sean, 6, and daughter Katherine, 23 months.

Some of those passing the casket crossed themselves. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver did. A man in cowboy boots and jeans held his hat over his heart. A former Marine saluted.

Charles Shelton, 38, a Los Angeles lawyer, was struck by the range of people.

"It's a testament, how broad his appeal was," said Shelton. "The man was a very good man, very graceful, which made it easy to support him."

Salvador Ayala, 74, came from Simi Valley with three other veterans.

"He won the Cold War without firing a shot. He was the greatest president that we ever had, and I'm a Democrat," said Ayala, who served in the Korean War.

Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells.

Reagan will be buried in a crypt beneath a memorial site at the library some 45 miles north of Los Angeles.

A wall there bears an inscription from Reagan: "I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life."