A last salute to Reagan

WASHINGTON -- With pealing bells, elaborate military honors, and tender remembrances of a man whose vision of America was a shining city on a hill, a remarkable congregation of world leaders, former presidents, US officials, family, and friends yesterday paid a final tribute to President Ronald Reagan at a majestic midday funeral in the Washington National Cathedral.

Hours later, after a cross-country flight and a memorial service for his family and Hollywood friends of the former movie star, Reagan was buried at sunset on the grounds of his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif. Reagan died June 5 at age 93.

President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, eulogized the 40th president as a courtly, gentle, considerate man who enjoyed a good joke, adored his wife, Nancy, restored a sense of optimism to the nation, and brought the courage of his convictions to bear on the Cold War abroad and on economic reforms at home.

''I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life," the elder Bush, who turns 80 today, said haltingly as he choked back tears. ''I learned kindness. We all did. I also learned courage. The nation did."

President Bush described Reagan as a leader who ''wore his title lightly, and it fit like a white Stetson."

''We think of his steady stride, that tilt of a head and snap of a salute, the big-screen smile, and the glint in his Irish eyes when a story came to mind," Bush said.

The recollections of Reagan as a common man were somewhat at odds with the first state funeral for a president in the massive Gothic cathedral since Dwight D. Eisenhower's death in 1969. It was an event fit for a king, crowded with the power elite and showing the careful stagecraft and grandeur that were hallmarks of the Reagan White House from 1981 through 1988.

Nancy Reagan invited former senator John Danforth, a Missouri Republican and an Episcopal priest, to officiate at the ecumenical service. It began with ''Ruffles and Flourishes" as the flag-draped casket arrived in a light rain at the cathedral, included four tributes, Scripture readings, a homily, renditions of ''Ave Maria," ''Amazing Grace," and ''Battle Hymn of the Republic," and ended 90 minutes later with 40 tolls of the church's Bourdon bell.

A procession with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a half-dozen clergy from different faiths, and five honorary pallbearers led the coffin down the long central nave to the crossing, where an honor guard placed the coffin on a bier beneath a single candle and a spray of white flowers. Nancy Reagan, 82, escorted by Army Major General Galen B. Jackman, followed the coffin slowly down the aisle. When she reached the pew, President Bush stood, took her arm, and directed her to her seat in the first row, next to her daughter.

Across the aisle was a rare presidential tableau: In the first row was President Bush and Laura Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, former President Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Behind them were former President Bush and Barbara Bush, former President Carter and Rosalynn Carter; and former President Ford and Betty Ford.

The invited guests included all members of the US Senate and House, the Supreme Court, Bush's Cabinet, and dozens of men and women who served in two Reagan administrations. Michael Deaver and entertainer Merv Griffin, two of Reagan's oldest friends, were honorary pallbearers. Henry Kissinger, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore, as well as children of former Presidents Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson, were part of the crowd.

''We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend," former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher said in a tribute, which was videotaped because a stroke made her too frail to speak in public. ''He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism."

Thatcher, who repeatedly referred to the former president as ''Ronnie," later accompanied Nancy Reagan and the three Reagan children -- Patti Davis, Ron, and Michael -- on their flight home to California.

Nancy Reagan remained composed during the service but seemed weary. She smiled occasionally and held her daughter's hand. Earlier, in the Capitol Rotunda where Reagan had lain in state since Wednesday evening, Nancy Reagan spent a few minutes with the casket, kissed it, and touched it lovingly. Capitol police estimated that at least 104,000 people paid their respects at the Rotunda, and many lined the streets as the funeral cortege traveled to the cathedral yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, limousines, cars, and busloads of dignitaries began arriving at the cathedral early for the 11:30 a.m. service. Under watch by Secret Service and uniformed police amid extraordinary security precautions, the invited guests entered in orderly streams to the mournful strains of Bach and Sibelius until nearly 4,000 people filled the cathedral.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sat next to Thatcher. Tony Blair, the current prime minister, and his wife, Cherie, attended, as did President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

Just before 10:30 a.m., the Clintons arrived and slowly made their way through a throng of diplomats. They stopped and greeted Senator John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and his wife, Teresa, and Clinton then embraced former President Ford, who is 90.

Harold Kushner, rabbi laureate of Temple Israel in Natick and author of ''When Bad Things Happen to Good People," read from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, and Sandra Day O'Connor, whom Reagan appointed to be the first woman on the US Supreme Court, read from a 1630 sermon by John Winthrop, the Massachusetts Puritan whose words inspired Reagan's often-repeated description of America as ''a shining city on a hill."

Danforth, in his homily, said Winthrop's message, adopted by Reagan, ''rang of optimism and we longed to hear it, especially after the dark days of Vietnam and Watergate."

Bush said Reagan grew up with the faith to overcome hardship, a disposition that won friends and allies, and a conviction ''as firm and straight as the columns of this cathedral."

''Ronald Reagan believed that everything happened for a reason and that we should strive to know and do the will of God," Bush said. ''He believed that people were basically good and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things a person could be guilty of. He believed that America was not just a place in the world, but the hope of the world."

It seemed everyone had a story about Reagan. After the funeral, Margaret Heckler, a former Massachusetts congresswoman who served in Reagan's Cabinet and as ambassador to Ireland, recalled how Reagan once impersonated a waiter and asked, ''How may I serve you, Miss?" during a flight aboard Air Force One. ''He had wit, a charm, and a generosity of spirit," Heckler said.

Caspar Weinberger, who was Reagan's defense secretary, and retired General John W. Vessey Jr., then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said their favorite story related to the night that Reagan gave the orders for a military invasion of the island of Grenada in 1983. National security adviser Robert McFarlane had told Reagan that he could spend the night in the White House situation room, monitoring the military operation.

''I told Reagan I was going to bed; there was nothing more he or I could do," Vessey said. '' 'Well, then, I'm going to bed, too,' Reagan said. 'Call me in the morning and let me know how it went.' "