Ford, at his request, will get less lavish state funeral than Reagan
The body of former President Gerald R. Ford will lie in the Capitol this weekend amid tributes marked by considerably less pageantry than the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan in 2004, Congressional officials said Wednesday.
Services for Mr. Ford, the 38th president, who died late Tuesday, will begin Friday in Palm Desert, Calif., with private prayers for the family at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Gregory D. Willard, a Ford family spokesman, said at a news conference.
The next day, his body will be flown to Washington. The hearse is to pause at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in recognition of Mr. Ford’s naval service in the Pacific. His state funeral is to be conducted on Saturday evening in the Capitol Rotunda, after which the public will be allowed to file by the coffin.
A service will be held next Tuesday in the Washington National Cathedral.
After the cathedral service, Mr. Ford’s body will be flown to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he got his start in national politics. The next day, after services at Grace Episcopal Church there, he will be interred on a hillside near his presidential museum. (Mr. Ford’s presidential library is at Ann Arbor, Mich.)
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Services for Mr. Ford, the 38th president, who died late Tuesday, will begin Friday in Palm Desert, Calif., with private prayers for the family at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, Gregory D. Willard, a Ford family spokesman, said at a news conference.
The next day, his body will be flown to Washington. The hearse is to pause at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in recognition of Mr. Ford’s naval service in the Pacific. His state funeral is to be conducted on Saturday evening in the Capitol Rotunda, after which the public will be allowed to file by the coffin.
A service will be held next Tuesday in the Washington National Cathedral.
After the cathedral service, Mr. Ford’s body will be flown to Grand Rapids, Mich., where he got his start in national politics. The next day, after services at Grace Episcopal Church there, he will be interred on a hillside near his presidential museum. (Mr. Ford’s presidential library is at Ann Arbor, Mich.)