Nation honors Ford under soaring arches of cathedral

WASHINGTON — The nation remembered Gerald R. Ford on Tuesday for what he didn't have — pretensions, a scheming agenda, a great golf game — as much as for the small-town authenticity he brought to the presidency.

The state funeral for the 38th president moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., Ford's final homecoming. The marching band from the University of Michigan, the school for which he played football, greeted the White House jet carrying his casket, members of his family and others in the funeral party.

Among those on the plane were Jimmy Carter, the Democrat who defeated Ford in 1976 and became his friend, and Carter's wife, Rosalynn.

In Grand Rapids, which the Nebraska native adopted as his hometown and represented in Congress for a quarter century, Ford's presidential museum was opening its doors for an 18-hour public viewing, stretching overnight, before his burial Wednesday afternoon.

An elaborate service at the Washington National Cathedral unfolded in the spirit of one of its musical selections — "Fanfare for the Common Man" — as powerful people celebrated the modesty and humility of a leader propelled to the presidency by the Watergate crisis that drove predecessor Richard Nixon from office.

"In President Ford, the world saw the best of America and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation's history," President Bush said in his eulogy.

Bush's father, the first President Bush, opened the eulogies, calling Ford a "Norman Rockwell painting come to life" and piercing the solemnity of the occasion by cracking gentle jokes about Ford's reputation as an errant golfer. He said Ford knew his golf game was getting better when he began hitting fewer spectators.

Former President Clinton and Vice President Dick Cheney joined in the laughter.

Henry Kissinger, Ford's secretary of state, paid tribute to his leadership in achieving nuclear arms control with the Soviets, in the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt and in helping to bring majority rule to southern Africa, among other achievements often overlooked in the modest man.

"In his understated way he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery," Kissinger said. "Gerald Ford had the virtues of small town America."