Gerald Ford Laid To Rest

Gerald R. Ford was laid to rest on the grounds of his presidential museum Wednesday during a ceremony watched by thousands of onlookers who lined streets and bridges to catch a glimpse of history.

The sunset burial capped six days of official mourning for the 38th president, from services in California to ceremonies at the nation's capital and a 17-hour viewing Tuesday night and Wednesday at the museum in his hometown.

At a graveside service that included a 21-gun salute and a 21-aircraft flyover, Vice President Dick Cheney presented former first lady Betty Ford with the American flag that was draped over her husband's casket.

Earlier, thousands of flag-waving mourners watched as a motorcade carrying Ford's body made its way one last time through the streets of his boyhood hometown to the Ford family church, where an honor guard carried the late president's casket inside for a final funeral service.

His widow wiped away tears as she sat with their four children and more than 300 dignitaries and family friends at Grace Episcopal Church.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in 1976 but later became a close friend, sat in a front pew, flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who served in Ford's cabinet as his chief of staff and defense secretary.

Rumsfeld praised Ford as "a patriot who knew that freedom is precious," and he recalled the day Mr. Ford took over the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon.

"The pressures were enormous, the stakes were high ... and the American people were holding their breath," Rumsfeld said. "Few doubted that the gentleman from Michigan would keep his word. That was his special magic."

After the service, the late president was interred in a private ceremony on his presidential museum grounds in downtown Grand Rapids, overlooking the Grand River.

One of President Ford's sons, Michael, told CBS News correspondent Bill Plante that his father always considered Grand Rapids his home – a special place with special people.

The past few days have shown a "genuine outpouring of good will," says CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. "I always said he's the nicest person I ever met in public life, and I think today we saw there were many people who felt the same way."

Some 57,000 mourners with bundled-up children in tow had waited hours to file past the flag-draped casket during the night. Some said silent prayers, and young Boy Scouts saluted the 38th president.

"There aren't too many politicians like that any more. They kind of broke the mold when they made him," said Bill Phillips, a state government photographer who signed a book of condolences at the museum on Wednesday morning.

Grand Rapids was the city that Ford called home. His family had belonged to Grace Episcopal Church since the early 1940s, and he played football for the University of Michigan's national championship teams in 1932 and 1933.

Many of the mourners at the museum and lining the roads during his funeral procession on Wednesday wore Michigan hats and sweatshirts in his honor.

Ford, who became president after Richard Nixon resigned, died Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 93.

Unlike Wednesday's services in the 350-seat Michigan church, the elaborate national funeral service in Washington on Tuesday drew 3,000 people.

But the service wasn't as elaborate as it could have been. In keeping with the former President's wishes to keep his funeral simple, there was no horse-drawn caisson, no riderless horse, no procession but a motorcade, reported CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

President Bush spoke Tuesday at the Washington service, as did NBC newsman Tom Brokaw and Mr. Ford's secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, among others.

"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, called Ford a "Norman Rockwell painting come to life" and cracked gentle jokes about his predecessor's reputation as an errant golfer.

Kissinger paid tribute to Ford's leadership in achieving nuclear arms control with the Soviets, pushing for the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt and helping to bring majority rule to southern Africa.

"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."

Brokaw said Ford brought to office "no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit list or acts of vengeance," an oblique reference to the air of subterfuge that surrounded Nixon in his final days.