Americans yesterday bid goodbye to a patriot, a hero and their 41st President George Herbert Walker Bush as he was laid to rest at his home state of Texas. The flag-draped casket of the 41st president lay in repose overnight ahead of the service at the Houston church, so mourners could file past it.
A final funeral service was held in Houston before his remains were transported in a special funeral train to his final resting spot. After the service, the casket was taken by a specially-designed train 120 kilometers (75 miles) north to the city of College Station for burial at his presidential library on the grounds of Texas A&M University.
About 2,100 cadets in dress uniforms lined the road to the graveside and saluted as the motorcade passed.
It was the first time a funeral train has carried presidential remains since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s remains were taken from Washington to his home state of Kansas 49 years ago.
The glass-sided train was greeted upon arrival by a military band playing “Hail to the Chief” and Texas A&M’s “Aggie War Hymn.”
The U.S. Navy conducted a 21-strike fighter flyover, a salute to the World War II Navy pilot, followed by cannons firing a 21-gun salute on the ground.
A private graveside service was held for George H.W. Bush’s family before the General was laid to rest at his presidential library at Texas A&M University. The late President Bush was laid to rest alongside his wife of 73 years, Barbara, who died earlier this year and their daughter Robin who succumbed to leukemia at age 3.
George H. W. Bush was born into privilege and politics — his father a U.S. senator and grandfather a top industrialist. He served in Congress, as ambassador to the United Nations, chaired the Republican National Committee, was an envoy to China, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and vice president before being elected president in 1988.
He died at the age of 94 on the night November 30, 2018.