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| Former US President George H. W. Bush looks at the casket of his late wife, former first lady Barbara Bush with his daughter Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch during the visitation at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston |
Four former U.S. presidents were among some 1,500 mourners gathering at a Houston church on Saturday for the funeral of former first lady Barbara Bush, the matriarch of one of the country’s most prominent political dynasties who died at age 92 on Tuesday.
Bush, the wife of the 41st president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, and the mother of the 43rd, George W. Bush, will be remembered at an invitation-only service at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, where she and her family have been members since the 1950s.
Among those planning to attend are former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, current first lady Melania Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former first lady Michelle Obama.
High-ranking officials from the elder Bush’s administration, including former Vice President Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney, who served as defense secretary before later becoming George W. Bush’s vice president, will also be among the mourners.
President Donald Trump, who clashed with the Bush family during his 2016 campaign, is not expected in Houston. The White House said this week that he wanted to avoid disrupting the service with added security.
In a Twitter post, Trump said his “thoughts and prayers are with the entire Bush family.”
At Bush’s own request, her younger son, former Florida governor and 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush, will deliver a eulogy. Her longtime friend Susan Baker, the wife of former Secretary of State James Baker, and the historian and author Jon Meacham, who penned a biography of George H.W. Bush, will also deliver remarks at the televised service.
Hours before the service’s scheduled start at 11 a.m. local time (1600 GMT), security was tight, with bomb-sniffing dogs checking media equipment and police officers searching bags.
Guests arrived at a different church several miles away to be bussed to the venue, walking past a throng of media.
“It was her singular ability to make you feel like you were the most important person in the world when you were talking to her,” Craig Denekas, a member of the board of directors of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, told reporters.
Bush made it possible for her husband to have “the arc of his life,” said Karl Rove, who served as a chief political adviser for the younger Bush and spoke with him a few days ago.
“This is a family of great faith, of great conviction,” Rove said. “He has every comfort, every confidence of where his mother is.”
Following Saturday’s service, Bush will be buried on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum at Texas A&M University in College Station, next to her daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of 3. The motorcade carrying her body will traverse both George Bush Drive and Barbara Bush Drive on its way to the burial site.
Members of the public paid their respects on Friday, when Bush lay in repose at the church. The 93-year-old George H.W. Bush, seated in a wheelchair in front of the casket, greeted mourners in turn with a handshake.
Bush, who was married to her husband for 73 years, was known for her sharp tongue and fierce devotion to her family and enjoyed broad public popularity during her time in the White House.
