The body of former US President George HW Bush was brought to the burial site at his presidential library in Texas on Thursday after a funeral at a Houston church where he was remembered by family members who knew him best as \u201cGampy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bush\u2019s casket travelled by train from Houston to College Station, Texas, and then carried to the gravesite behind his library by a military honour guard, in a ceremony overseen by his son and former President George W Bush.<\/p>\n
Bush, the 41st US 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe memorial was a beautiful tribute to President Bush\u2019s extraordinary life and a noble legacy to public service,\u201d Trump said at a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Thursday. \u201cHe was a wonderful man. We will always remember this great statesman and beloved American patriot. He really was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s funeral service in Houston was held at St. Martin\u2019s Episcopal Church, where Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush worshipped for more than five decades, and took on a more personal tone with remarks by family members.<\/p>\n
George W. Bush, who followed his father to the White House after President Bill Clinton\u2019s two terms, sat in a front pew near the flag-draped casket and joined in as some 1,000 mourners sang \u201cAmerica the Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\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.<\/p>\n
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?’\u201d His voice cracking at moments, Baker said he was at his friend\u2019s deathbed last week.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Following the funeral service, Bush\u2019s remains were taken by train some 80 miles northwest to College Station for the burial alongside his wife, Barbara, who died in April, and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953.<\/p>\n
Residents of small towns along the route gathered to wave at the train, a Union Pacific Corp locomotive numbered 4141 and bearing the name \u201cGeorge Bush 41\u201d on the side, as it passed.<\/p>\n
Bush, a US Navy aviator who narrowly escaped death when he was shot down by Japanese forces over the Pacific Ocean during World War Two, was honoured with a 21-plane flyover in a \u201cmissing man\u201d formation before he was carried to his gravesite for a private interment.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He supported the passage of the American with Disabilities Act, a major civil rights law protecting disabled people from discrimination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The body of former US President George HW Bush was brought to the burial site at his presidential library in Texas on Thursday after a funeral at a Houston church where he was remembered by family members who knew him best as \u201cGampy.\u201d Bush\u2019s casket travelled by train from Houston to College Station, Texas, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49411,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49409\/revisions\/49411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}