The body of U. S. President George H. W. Bush arrived by train at his presidential library in College Station, Texas, on Thursday to be buried following a funeral at a Houston church where he was remembered by family members who knew him best as \u00ab\u00a0Gampy.\u00a0\u00bb<\/b>
\nHOUSTON (Reuters) – The body of U. S. President George H. W. Bush arrived by train at his presidential library in College Station, Texas, on Thursday to be buried following a funeral at a Houston church where he was remembered by family members who knew him best as \u201cGampy.\u201d
Bush\u2019s casket was carried to his grave behind his presidential library by a military honor guard, while a squadron of Navy aircraft did a flyover, in a ceremony overseen by his son and former President George W. Bush.
Bush, the 41st U. S. president, died last week in Texas at 94. His remains were flown to Texas on Wednesday following a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral attended by President Donald Trump, the four living former presidents and foreign leaders.
Thursday\u2019s funeral service was held at St. Martin\u2019s Episcopal Church in Houston, where Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush worshipped for more five decades, and took on a more personal tone with remarks by family members.
George W. Bush, who followed his father to the White House, sat in a front pew near the flag-draped casket and joined in as some 1,000 mourners sang \u201cAmerica the Beautiful.\u201d
George P. Bush, son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and one of the former president\u2019s 17 grandchildren, remembered fly fishing and sharing ice cream with the man he called \u201cGampy.\u201d
James Baker, a longtime friend who served as Bush\u2019s secretary of state, eulogized the former president as a peacemaker and \u201ca truly beautiful human being.\u201d
\u201cHe was not considered a skilled speaker, but his deeds were quite eloquent and he demonstrated their eloquence by carving them into the hard granite of history,\u201d Baker said.
Mourners laughed as Baker recalled how Bush would let him know a conversation was over: \u201c\u2018Baker, if you\u2019re so smart, why am I president and you\u2019re not?\u2019\u201d His voice cracking at moments, Baker said he was at his friend\u2019s deathbed last week.
Raised in an Episcopalian family in Massachusetts, Bush fused his preppy New England background with the more free-wheeling traits of his adoptive state of Texas, where he moved as a young man to work in the oil industry.
That mix was reflected in the music heard at his funeral: the St. Martin\u2019s Parish Choir sang \u201cThe Battle Hymn of the Republic,\u201d country music star Reba McEntire performed \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer,\u201d and the casket was carried out of the church to the thunderous strains of \u201cOnward Christian Soldiers.\u201d LOCOMOTIVE 4141
Following the funeral service, Bush\u2019s remains were taken by train some 80 miles (130 km) northwest to his presidential library in College Station, Texas, where he will be buried alongside his wife, Barbara, who died in April, and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953.
Residents of small towns along the route gathered to wave at the train, a Union Pacific Corp ( UNP. N) locomotive numbered 4141 and bearing the name \u201cGeorge Bush 41\u201d on the side, as it passed.
Bush, a U. S. Navy aviator who narrowly escaped death when he was shot down by Japanese forces over the Pacific Ocean during World War Two, will be buried with military honors, including a flyover by 21 Navy aircraft.
Bush was president from 1989 to 1993, navigating the collapse of the Soviet Union and expelling former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein\u2019s forces from oil-rich Kuwait.
He supported the passage of the American with Disabilities Act, a major civil rights law protecting disabled people from discrimination.
A patrician figure who served as vice president to Ronald Reagan, Bush lost re-election to a second term in part for failing to connect with ordinary Americans during an economic recession.
He has also been criticized for supporting tough drug laws that led to the disproportionate incarceration of black people, as well as what activists call an insufficient response to the AIDS epidemic.
But tributes in recent days have focused on the former Republican president as a man of integrity and kindness who represented an earlier era of civility in American politics.<\/p>\n