Bush pays respects to a predecessor

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush paid their respects to Gerald R. Ford yesterday, the final day the former president’s body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

Mr. and Mrs. Bush stood before Mr. Ford’s closed flag-draped casket with their heads bowed in a brief but solemn tribute yesterday afternoon after returning to Washington from their ranch in Texas.

Afterward, the Bush motorcade took the president to Blair House, across the street from the White House, where the Bushes visited former first lady Betty Ford for a half hour and then walked back to the Executive Mansion.

Mr. and Mrs. Bush joined thousands of mourners who braved steady rainfall and frigid temperatures yesterday to say a final goodbye to the 38th president of the United States.

“I wanted my children to see and be part of history,” said Trisha Mellott, who drove six hours from Canfield, Ohio, with her 11-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter to see Mr. Ford’s casket. “We are proud to be Americans, so I wanted them to experience this.”

Mr. Ford’s body had been lying in state since Saturday, four days after he died at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at 93.

State funeral services for Mr. Ford, the country’s only unelected president, who took office in 1974 in the aftermath of Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate scandal, will be held today at the Washington National Cathedral.

Mr. Bush will deliver the funeral eulogy. Mr. Ford will be buried tomorrow near his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Mich.

As light rain fell throughout yesterday morning, thousands lined up outside the Capitol clad in rainwear and toting umbrellas to pay respects to a president that many remembered as a kind and genuine person.

“It’s an experience of a lifetime,” said Lynn Yowaiski, 59, of Lexington Park, Md., who came with her husband and best friend to the public viewing. “Plus, I liked him. I always felt like he was telling the truth.”

Carol Hooker, a teacher from Landover Hills, said she felt a personal connection with the former president after sending him a tongue-in-cheek letter years ago and finding out from a White House staffer that Mr. Ford and his Cabinet got a much-needed laugh from the correspondence.

Mrs. Hooker, 54, said she admired Mr. Ford so much that her family bought a Ford Fairmont station wagon and named it Gerald “Our” Ford.

“He was somebody that was genuinely kind,” said Mrs. Hooker, standing in line without an umbrella and with rain clouding her glasses.

Inside the Rotunda, Mr. Ford’s daughter, Susan Ford Bales, and son Michael Gerald Ford stood near the casket greeting mourners and handing remembrance cards to some of the visitors.

The blue cards had the presidential, vice presidential and House of Representatives seals and Mr. Ford’s biography on one side.

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