Nation honors Ford in elaborate funeral service

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The nation honored Gerald R. Ford on Tuesday in a high-powered fanfare for the common man who was summoned to the presidency in the Watergate crisis. He was remembered for what he didn’t have ? pretensions, a scheming agenda, a great golf game ? as much as for the small-town authenticity he brought to high office.

“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.

The elaborate service at the Washington National Cathedral was the final assembly in the capital’s portion of the state funeral for the 38th president, before Ford’s interment today in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The elder President Bush, opening the eulogies, called Ford a “Norman Rockwell painting come to life” and pierced the solemnity of the occasion by cracking gentle jokes about Ford’s reputation as an errant golfer. He said Ford knew his golf game was getting better when he began hitting fewer spectators.

Former President Clinton and Vice President Dick Cheney joined in the laughter.

Henry Kissinger, Ford’s secretary of state, paid tribute to Ford’s leadership in achieving nuclear arms control with the Soviets.