Former US president George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush pay their respect to his father former president George H.W. Bush as he lies in state at the US Capitol in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP)
WASHINGTON — The US capital bids its final farewell to the late president, George H.W. Bush, in a service of prayer and praise that is drawing together world envoys, Americans of high office and a guy from Maine who used to fix things in Bush's house on the water.
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The ceremony Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral, the nexus of state funerals, will cap three days of remembrance by dignitaries and ordinary citizens as they honored the Republican president who oversaw the post-Cold War transition and led a successful Gulf War, only to lose re-election in a generational shift to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.
US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pay their respects to former president George H. W. Bush, as he lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Dec 3, 2018, in Washington. (JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP)
The four living ex-presidents are coming — among them, George W. Bush will eulogize his father — and President Donald Trump will attend but is not scheduled to speak. Also attending: one king (Jordan), one queen (Jordan), two princes (Britain, Bahrain), Germany's chancellor and Poland's president, among representatives of more than a dozen countries.
Also expected in the invitation-only crowd: Mike Lovejoy, a Kennebunkport electrician and fix-it man who has worked at Bush's Maine summer estate since 1990 and says he was shocked and heartened to be asked to come.
Sully, former US president George H.W. Bush's service dog, pays his respect to President Bush as he lies in state at the US Capitol in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP)
On Tuesday, soldiers, citizens in wheelchairs and long lines of others on foot wound through the hushed Capitol Rotunda to view Bush's casket and honor a president whose legacy included World War military service and a landmark law affirming the rights of the disabled. Former Sen. Bob Dole, a compatriot in war, peace and political struggle, steadied himself out of his wheelchair and saluted his old friend and one-time rival.
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After the national funeral service at the cathedral, Bush's remains will be returned to Houston to lie in repose at St. Martin's Episcopal Church before burial Thursday at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place will be alongside Barbara Bush, his wife of 73 years who died in April, and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia in 1953 at age 3.
Former Sen. Bob Dole salutes the flag-draped casket containing the remains of former US president George H.W. Bush as he lies in state at the US Capitol in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP)
Former US secretary of state Colin Powell, third from left, leads former Operation Desert Storm commanders as they pay their last respects to former president George H.W. Bush as he lies in state at the US Capitol in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP)
Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice pays her last respect to former president George H.W. Bush as he lies in state at the US Capitol in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP)
A man and woman become emotional as they view the flag-draped casket of former US president George H.W. Bush as he lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Dec 3, 2018. (ANDREW HARNIK / AP)
Visitors file into the Capitol Rotunda to view the flag-draped casket of former US president George H.W. Bush as he lies in state in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP)
The flag-draped casket of former US president George H.W. Bush lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP)
An honor guard prepares for a changing of the guard in the US Capitol as the flag-draped casket of former US president George H.W. Bush lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Dec 4, 2018. (PATRICK SEMANSKY / AP)
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