In D.C. and Illinois hometown, a day of mourning and praise

WASHINGTON -- From President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, to US Army Lieutenant Larry Blevins, who wanted to leave his Bronze Star from the Iraq war beside the casket, Ronald Reagan was commemorated in death yesterday by thousands who filed through the soaring rotunda of the Capitol.

The nation's 40th president, who will be buried tonight in California after a dignitary-laden funeral this morning in the National Cathedral, continued to be the focus of an outpouring of grief, as tourists scrapped museum visits for an opportunity to view his casket, and others drove to Washington to pay their respects.

Bush and his wife, Laura, also made their first visit to Reagan's casket, heading for the Capitol after the Group of Eight economic summit concluded in Georgia. Among those honoring Reagan were members of his Secret Service detail, who made a solemn visit to pay tribute to the man who entrusted his life to them.

Blevins filed by the casket at midafternoon and asked to leave behind a blue leather box bearing his Bronze Star, ribbons for serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the war on terror, a combat medical badge, and a badge signifying his unit, the 377th Field Artillery Regiment, stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.

The 33-year-old, who returned from 11 months of service in Iraq in February, drove eight hours and then stood in line for three hours before entering the quiet sanctuary afforded by the 185-foot expanse under the Capitol dome.

''This is the greatest thing I ever did, so I just felt obligated to give it away as a symbol of what living here means to me," Blevins said as he cradled his medals. A Capitol Police officer asked him to take the memento outside so that it could be catalogued by the National Park Service for possible inclusion in the collection at the Reagan Presidential Library in California.

''Once you go to a country like Iraq, living in the Third World where somebody makes decisions for you, you just realize how great the freedom is in our country," Blevins said. He said he was drawn to Reagan because the 93-year-old was the same age as his grandfather, was the first president he remembered as a child, and was serving as president in 1987 when his father died.

''He stood, for me, for what America was," the Army medic said.

Bush and his wife paused by Reagan's casket, bowed their heads, and closed their eyes. The president swept his hands along the flag-draped casket and the couple left to visit Nancy Reagan.

At Blair House, Nancy Reagan received visitors who had shared the world stage with her late husband.

''To Ronnie," former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher wrote in the Blair House condolence book. ''Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, who shared an Irish ancestry with Reagan, also visited the former first lady, with his wife, Mila. ''For Ron with affection, admiration, and respect," the Mulroneys wrote in the Blair House book. ''The Gipper always came through!"

In Reagan's hometown of Dixon, Ill., he was remembered by US House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert as ''an ordinary man who did extraordinary things."

Hastert joined local politicians and hundreds of mourners as they said goodbye to their local hero during a ceremony in the church where Reagan was baptized.

''The faith and courage he learned right here, on the prairie of Illinois," said Hastert, a Republican whose district covers this farming town of 16,000 about 100 miles west of Chicago. ''Ronald Reagan stood up when many leaders in the world stepped back."

Reagan was baptized in First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1922, when he was 11, and often made the half-mile walk for Sunday services with his mother, Nelle. The service lasted just under 90 minutes. Young girls snuggled with their mothers, boys played in the pews, and grown men cried.

After the service, more than 175 invited guests poured from the church onto Hennepin Avenue, joined by 450 mourners who watched the service on closed-circuit television from First United Methodist Church across the street. About 100 others stood out in the rain and listened to the service over loudspeakers.

Slowly, most of them gathered on Hennepin, forming a wide column with umbrellas up, walking the seven blocks south to Reagan's boyhood home. American flags lined the path.

''It's such an honor to be walking in his footsteps," said Pam Waters, 57, of St. Charles, Ill., choking back tears. ''He touched the people in so many different ways with his kindness."

The procession ended at a small park next to the two-story, white frame house where the Reagan family had moved in 1920. A life-size statue of Reagan, now wrapped in flowers, wreaths, flags, and notes, sits in the middle of the park at Ninth Street and Hennepin Avenue.

The Reagan family moved to the three-bedroom house when Reagan was 9, from tiny Tampico, about 30 miles southwest of Dixon. Over the years, Reagan visited his hometown a number of times, and President Bush made the home, now a museum, a national historic site in 2002.

Johnson reported from Washington, and Ferkenhoff reported from Dixon, Ill. Material from the Associated Press also was used in this report.