as family, friends and Hollywood celebrities bid farewell to the 40th president of the United States.
Over 700 invited guests watched as the setting sun bathed the surrounding hills golden and gently touched the western horizon. Rev. Michael Wenning, the retired pastor from Bel Air Presbyterian Church presided over the service, while the U.S. Army Chorus and U.S. Air Force Band serenaded. Guests included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver, former Gov. Pete Wilson, actor Tom Selleck, Mickey Rooney, Johnny Mathis, Wayne Newton, Merv Griffin, and Bo Derek.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher accompanied Mrs. Reagan on Air Force One on the trip from Andrews Air Force Base in Washington to California.
"I knew him as dad," said Michael Reagan. "Ronald Reagan adopted me into his family in 1945. In all these years he never mentioned I was adopted," Michael said, but treated him as a son. He recalled his father sending him a letter before his wedding advising him to remain faithful to his wife. He also said the greatest gift his father gave him was on a plane flight from Washington D.C. in 1988 when the president told Michael about his relationship with Jesus Christ. "I know where he is this very day–that he is in heaven. "Michael promised to join him one day.
RECONCILED
Daughter ghter RPatti Davis "once estranged from the family but now reconciled", said, "He never feared death. He never saw it as an ending." She recalled after the Malibu fires he bent down and showed her green shoots coming up from the scorched earth, teaching her new life can come out of death. "I don’t know why Alzheimer’s was allowed to steal so much of my father, but when he opened his eyes (before he died) and looked at my mother, he showed us that neither disease or death can conquer death."
His youngest son, Ronald Prescott Reagan, said, "He is home now. He is free. History will record his worth as a leader. He was honest, compassionate, graceful and brave. He was the mostly plainly decent man you could meet. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the world." Son Ron also remembered his father as a "deeply, unabashedly religious man," but one who never wore his religion on his sleeve for political advantage.
Rev. John Danforth, the former U.S. Senator from Missouri, read the 23rd Psalm. Then the Star Spangled Banner was sung with the assembled guests joining in. Afterward, a Marine dressed in Scottish ceremonial attire played "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes, as eight servicemen carried Reagan’s flag-covered coffin to the grave site at the back of the library.
FLAG
The flag–originally flown at Reagan’s inauguration "was carefully folded and handed to Mrs. Reagan"- Rev. Wenning said,- "Dear Nancy, thank you for bearing your grief so nobly. The whole American nation was putting its arm around you. Thank you for caring for the president in his declining years."
"He was a gift from God to us all," Rev. Wenning continued. Wenning recalled meeting alone with Reagan at his office in Los Angeles for prayer and scripture reading. "He could sing the hymns without looking at the hymnal. Ronald Reagan knew of the grace of his lord Jesus Christ, because he lived in that grace. Grace has led him home this day. The fruit of the Holy Spirit was deeply imbedded in his DNA."
A 21-gun salute was given by the 11th Marine Artillery Regiment followed by a lone bugler playing taps at sunset.
Mrs. Reagan shook her head slightly as she gazed at the wood coffin from a chair nearby. Then she got up and slowly approached the coffin, placed her head on the bare wood as her children gathered next to her. She kissed the top and said goodbye one last time.
