Page 3 - ATODAY

U.S. NEWS A3
Thursday 10 March 2016

Mourners pay respect for former first lady Nancy Reagan

JOHN ROGERS The casket of Nancy Reagan rest at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Wednesday, March hind every great man.”
Associated Press Friday will be the funeral,
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) 9, 2016 in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool) which was planned down
— Three days of formal to the smallest details by
mourning for former first white roses and peonies, Angeles where two days cal assistant at Providence the former first lady herself.
lady Nancy Reagan be- Mrs. Reagan’s favorite of public viewing precede St. John’s Health Center. Just as she was always by
gan Wednesday as her flower. the funeral. “I thought she did a won- his side in life, Nancy Rea-
casket was taken in a po- Earlier in the day, after a Several hundred onlook- derful job. ‘Just Say No’ to gan will be laid to rest just
lice-escorted motorcade short private service at ers stretched along the drugs, she was behind all inches from her husband
up an empty freeway for a a Santa Monica funeral boulevard leading away that.” on a hillside tomb facing
public viewing at the Ron- home, the casket was car- from the Tudor-style funer- Another medical assistant, west toward the Pacific
ald Reagan Presidential Li- ried by pallbearers that al home, holding up cell- Lupe Salazar, said she was Ocean.
brary. included members of Rea- phones and cameras to also an admirer. “She did a Before her death she
The procession from Santa gan’s Secret Service detail capture photos. lot of work that helped the planned the funeral’s flow-
Monica passed beneath to a hearse for the final “She was just a very classy country,” Salazar said. er arrangements, the mu-
a large American flag on 45-mile journey to the hill woman, always,” said Maurello added: “There’s sic to be played by a Ma-
a stretch of normally con- country northwest of Los Jeanie Maurello, a medi- always a great woman be- rine Corps band and the
gested highway and then people who received invi-
turned onto the Ronald tations to the private me-
Reagan Freeway where morial. Among those who
firefighters in dress blues sa- had RSVP’d for the ser-
luted from atop fire trucks vice were former President
parked on overpasses and George W. Bush and his
other observers held their wife, former first lady Laura
hands over their hearts. Bush; former first lady Ro-
As the procession turned salynn Carter; first lady Mi-
up the long, steep drive- chelle Obama; and former
way to the library in the hills first lady Hillary Clinton. “No
of Simi Valley, more than doubt about it, the most
100 docents held small important of her special
flags. requests was that she be
Members of the armed laid to rest right next to the
services carried the casket president, as close as pos-
past a gurgling courtyard sible,” said John Heubusch,
fountain into the library, executive director of the
where daughter Patti Da- Ronald Reagan Presiden-
vis, dressed in black, was tial Foundation and Library.
among about 20 fam-
ily members and close
friends who attended a
short prayer service at the
closed casket.
“May angels surround her
and saints release her to
Jesus,” the Rev. Stuart Ken-
worthy, vicar at the Wash-
ington National Cathedral,
said during the 10-minute
service.
The Rev. Donn Moomaw,
the Reagan family’s pas-
tor, read from the 23rd
Psalm, which begins, “The
Lord is my shepherd; I shall
not want.”
Attendees included the
children of Ronald Rea-
gan’s son Michael and
Dennis Revell, the wid-
ower of the president’s
late daughter Maureen.
Michael Reagan and the
president’s other son, Ron
Prescott Reagan, are ex-
pected at Friday’s funeral.
After the private service,
House Speaker Paul Ryan
paid his respects, bowing
his head in prayer aside
the casket and making the
sign of the cross.
The casket was covered in