WASHINGTON — After lying in state in the Capitol rotunda since Monday evening, the coffin of President George H.W. Bush was placed in a hearse for the somber motorcade Wednesday to a state funeral at the National Cathedral, where four former presidents and President Donald Trump waited to honor his legacy.
People lined Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Wisconsin avenues to honor the 41st president.
Bush will be buried Thursday morning in College Station, Texas at his presidential library at Texas A&M University.
His son, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, delivered an emotional euology recounting the life of a loving husband and father, and of a man with incredible energy. “He was the brightest of a thousand points of light,” Bush said.
He also spoke of his father’s sense of humor.
“He loved to tease and needle, but never out of malice. He placed great value on a good joke,” said Bush, “That’s why he chose Simpson to speak.”
Earlier, in a historic moment, Bush saluted his father’s casket outside the Capitol – a former president saluting his father, who also was president.
Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, said the elder Bush insisted he keep it short. “He was very direct about. It wasn’t even funny.”
“It would have been so much easier to celebrate his life with him here,” Simpson said. “ But he is gone, irrevocably gone.”
Historian Jon Meacham, Bush’s biographer and the first speaker at the service, reminded the audience that Bush was one of the youngest pilots in World War II.
“George Herbert Walker Bush was the last great soldier statesman — a 21st century founding father.,” Meacham said. “He governed with the virtues that most closely resembled those of Washington and Adams and FDR and Truman and Eisenhower. Men who believed in causes larger than themselves.”
George H.W. Bush Funeral
Military pallbearers carry the 41st president’s casket down the Capitol steps. The public had two days to pay their respects to George H.W. Bush at the Capitol. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
His children hold their hands to their hearts as George H.W. Bush’s casket is placed into the hearse to go to the National Cathedral. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
A cafe near Pennsylvania Avenue plays live coverage for its customers of the 41st president’s procession and funeral. (Dorothy Mills-Gregg/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
Servicemen from all branches of the military march to line the Capitol steps and give the 41st president a formal send off as he leaves Congress for the final time. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
Pennsylvania Avenue was closed for several hours as a motorcade took the 41st president to his funeral services. In attendance were current President Donald Trump, and former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. (Dorothy Mills-Gregg/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, along with their spouses, joined the ceremony of moving the 41st president from the capitol to his funeral held at the National Cathedral. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral Capitol
Casket of George H.W. Bush is carried down the capitol steps to the awaiting hearse. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
The Capitol’s U.S. flag flies at half-staff during the National Day of Mourning. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
Newseum staff and visitors watch live coverage on the museum’s lobby screen of George H.W. Bush’s final procession from the Capitol. (Dorothy Mills-Gregg/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
The Bush family, including former President George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, line up for the final send off of George H.W. Bush from the Capitol. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
Part of the motorcade passes by the Canadian Embassy along Pennsylvania Avenue. Officers gave George H.W. Bush a final salute when his hearse drove by in route to the National Cathedral. (Dorothy Mills-Gregg/MNS)
George H.W. Bush Funeral
A hearse takes the 41st president to the National Cathedral where his son and 43rd president, George W. Bush, delivered a touching euology. (Adam Barnes/MNS)
Jim Ohlstrom, 51, from D.C. (Jessica Floyd/MNS)
Sue Ohlstrom, 54, from D.C. (Jessica Floyd/MNS)
Jim Ohlstrom, 51, worked at Camp David when George H.W. Bush was president. He and his wife, Sue, waited two hours on the first night of public viewing of Bush’s coffin in the Capitol Rotunda to give his former leader one last salute.
“To see him there,” Jim said, “the respect I had for him as president, but also as a father, a patriot. It was just incredible. So to see him leave, it’s hard.”
Sue said her husband has shared several stories about the Bush family and their generosity so she wanted to be with him for the viewing.
“It was very subdued,” Sue, 54, said. “There was no arguing. There was no politics. Nobody was giving their opinion about things or bashing one belief versus another. Everybody was just very respectful.”
They decided to pay their respects again when the 41st president was moved from the Capitol to the National Cathedral for his funeral.
“This is a part of history,” she said. “How many people can say you’re actually there to honor somebody that’s done something for you? It’s kind of a way to give back when you’re not in politics.”
Christine Fehskens, 35, from D.C. (Jessica Floyd/MNS)
Christine Fehskens, 35, who works for a nonprofit close to Pennsylvania Avenue, remembers President George H.W. Bush from her childhood. She did not get a chance to say farewell while the former president was lying in state in the Capitol so she decided to watch the funeral procession as the hearse carrying the late president and a line of vehicles carrying family and officials drove from Capitol Hill to the National Cathedral.
“Folks are no less political. There’s no less differing of opinions, I think, but it’s perhaps the way we go about it and a bit of a loss of civility that we’re grappling with now as a society,” Fehskens said.
While she waited in the 30-degree weather for the motorcade to drive past her on Pennsylvania Avenue, she looked at the Newseum’s display of front pages of newspapers from across the U.S.
“There’s a lot going on in the country obliviously now and during the week but they really, really focused on today as a day of mourning so I thought that was interesting,” she said.
Lesley Sheridan, and her daughter, Erin, from Florida (Jessica Floyd/MNS)
Christine Fehskens, 35, who works for a nonprofit close to Pennsylvania Avenue, remembers President George H.W. Bush from her childhood. She did not get a chance to say farewell while the former president was lying in state in the Capitol so she decided to watch the funeral procession as the hearse carrying the late president and a line of vehicles carrying family and officials drove from Capitol Hill to the National Cathedral.
“Folks are no less political. There’s no less differing of opinions, I think, but it’s perhaps the way we go about it and a bit of a loss of civility that we’re grappling with now as a society,” Fehskens said.
While she waited in the 30-degree weather for the motorcade to drive past her on Pennsylvania Avenue, she looked at the Newseum’s display of front pages of newspapers from across the U.S.
“There’s a lot going on in the country obliviously now and during the week but they really, really focused on today as a day of mourning so I thought that was interesting,” she said.