For George Jones Fans, One Last Show Pool photo by Mark Humphrey The former first lady Laura Bush hugs Nancy Jones, left, the widow of George Jones during his funeral in Nashville. NASHVILLE - Fans began gathering outside the Grand Ole Opry House at noon on Wednesday, almost 24 hours before the funeral of the country singer George Jones, who died at 81 last Friday. By 8 a.m. Thursday, two hours before the service was scheduled to start, the throng had snaked its way through Opry Plaza onto the sidewalk to the Gaylord Opryland hotel, extending the equivalent of two to three blocks. Soon some 3,000 admirers, including some of the biggest names in country music, crowded into the Opry House to pay tribute to Mr. Jones, one of the giants of the genre, at a public funeral. Featured speakers at the service included former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas; the country singers Kenny Chesney and Barbara Mandrell; CBS News" chief Washington correspondent, Bob Schieffer; and the former first lady Laura Bush. The funeral was broadcast by eight television stations, two radio networks and streamed live by WSMonline.com. Greeted by a standing ovation, Mrs. Bush injected some levity into the proceedings recalling how on more than one occasion she passed by the exercise room in the White House and heard Mr. Jones's "White Lightning" playing while her husband was working out on the treadmill. George W. listening to George J., she called it. Charlie Daniels, Kid Rock, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley and Ronnie Milsap were among the dozen or so musicians who performed, a cloud of witnesses that testified to the stylistic and intergenerational reach of Mr. Jones's inimitable voice and music. Most of the songs they sang were Southern gospel standards, including a spine-tingling a cappella take of "Farther Along" by the Oak Ridge Boys and a soaring duet version of "Go Rest High on that Mountain" by Patty Loveless and Vince Gill. Midway through the latter Mr. Gill got so emotional that he couldn't sing his lines, opting instead to transmit his feelings for his late friend and mentor through his fingertips. The blistering acoustic guitar solo that ensued had the crowd on its feet. Kid Rock introduced his number with the story of how, when he went to visit him in the hospital last week, Mr. Jones pulled off his oxygen mask so that he could give him a kiss. Not surprisingly, much of the testimony about Mr. Jones, one of the last links to country music's rural pre-homogenized past, centered on his perseverance amid adversity and hardship - everything from growing up dirt-poor with an abusive father to battling inner demons like crippling addiction and self-doubt. "George Jones was more than just a country singer," Mr. Schieffer said at the funeral, which lasted two and a half hours. He was a country song, and it never was an easy song. Norman Wright, a retired 69-year-old Texas transplant and a fan of Mr. Jones's music since the mid-1950s, had only been in line for a couple of hours. Nevertheless he knew what it was like to wait for the singer, having once bought a ticket for a show for which Mr. Jones failed to appear because he was drunk or otherwise incapacitated. Mr. Wright, who wore a greased-back mop of steel gray hair in the style worn by Mr. Jones in the 1950s, said he had been disappointed by the cancellation, but "I got over it quickly, but only because I really loved the guy and his music." At a private visitation for Mr. Jones's family and friends on Wednesday evening, Mr. Schieffer had recalled a conversation with Mr. Jones about his reputation for canceling shows. "He said the thing he could never forgive himself for was realizing those people had saved all their money to come see him, and that most of them were poor," Mr. Schieffer said. The singer Brenda Lee, 68, who first toured with Mr. Jones when she was 10, recalled at Wednesday's visitation how poignant one of his songs, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes" now seemed. "I've lost a great friend," she said. The world has lost a great voice. It will not be forgotten.