WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on events honoring former President George H.W. Bush (all times local):

Former President George W. Bush and his family have greeted mourners at the Capitol as his father, George H.W. Bush, lies in state.

The younger Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, their daughters, Jenna and Barbara, and his brother Jeb.

The Bushes shook hands and hugged members of the public who had come to the Capitol to pay tribute to the family patriarch, who died Friday at age 94.

George W. Bush even held a baby who had been brought to the Capitol by a mourner.

A tearful Cindy McCain has said farewell to former President George H.W. Bush.

The widow of Republican Sen. John McCain visited the casket in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening. She approached the casket in tears, kissed a hand and touched it to the flag covering the casket.

It's the second time she's grieved in the soaring room since her husband died Aug. 25 of brain cancer. The casket holding the Arizona senator lay for a viewing in the same spot, also on the catafalque constructed to hold the remains of President Abraham Lincoln.

President Donald Trump is visiting with the family of former President George H.W. Bush.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived by motorcade at Blair House on Tuesday. It's the official government guest house across from the White House where Bush's son former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are staying for the elder Bush's state funeral this week.

The Bushes descended a short staircase to greet the Trumps before everyone went inside for the private visit.

Trump put his hand on George W. Bush's back a couple of times.

Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that he was "Looking forward to being with the wonderful Bush family at Blair House today."

Trump hasn't always said the kindest things about the Bush family, and some of the Bushes have publicly criticized Trump.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has saluted President George H.W. Bush at the casket of the late president.

Like Bush, Dole is a World War II veteran. He arrived in the Capitol rotunda in a wheelchair pushed by an aide. At the casket's side, the aide lifted Dole, 95, into a standing position. Once steadied, Dole saluted.

Bush achieved the office that Dole sought in 1996 as the Republican presidential nominee.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, the founder of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement, and the current Polish president, Andrzej Duda, are planning to attend the state funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.

Walesa is credited with a key role in bringing down the communist system in Poland in 1989 and went on to serve as the first democratic-era president, from 1990-95.

On hearing of Bush's death, Walesa on Saturday also credited Bush with a historic role, saying, "he did much to overcome communism and help Poland" and that Bush "will remain forever in our hearts and memory."

Duda said Walesa had asked to travel on the presidential plane with him and that he agreed. That in itself was a major news story in Poland on Tuesday because Walesa is a sharp critic of the current ruling authorities, including the president.

Former first lady Laura Bush has received a tour of the White House Christmas decorations by first lady Melania Trump.

A spokeswoman for Melania Trump says only that the visit happened. No other details about the private visit were released. President Donald Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that Mrs. Bush would visit. Trump also said he'd visit the Bush family later Tuesday.

Laura Bush is in Washington for the state funeral of her father-in-law, former President George H.W. Bush.

Melania Trump unveiled the White House Christmas decor last week. She decorated a hallway in the East Wing with red Christmas Trees and tweaked the traditional gingerbread White House by adding replicas of the Lincoln and Washington monuments, the Jefferson Memorial and the U.S. Capitol, where Bush is lying in state.

Sully the service dog has visited with former President George H.W. Bush's casket.

The yellow Labrador, who served the late president until his death on Friday, walked into the Rotunda on a leash with Americans in wheelchairs who have benefited from the Americans with Disabilities Act that Bush signed.

Sully is 2 years old and named for retired airline captain "Sully" Sullenberger who in 2009 landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River off Manhattan after both engines were disabled by a bird strike. All 155 people aboard survived.

Sully the dog lay down near the casket and later sat among the disabled Americans gathered to pay their respects to Bush. He'll head off to a few weeks' training at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and is expected to serve veterans.

The CIA has saluted the late President George H.W. Bush, the only director of the spy agency to serve in the nation's highest office.

CIA Director Gina Haspel and former directors John Brennan and George Tenet paid their respects as they visited Bush's casket in the Capitol Rotunda during a day of public viewing. Bush died Friday at age 94.

Bush was the only former CIA director to become president. The agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, was named for him in 1999.

Other officials who paid respects Tuesday include former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the mourners paying respects to the former president as he was lying in state on Monday.

President Donald Trump says he'll meet with the Bush family at his guesthouse.

Trump tweeted Tuesday: "Looking forward to being with the wonderful Bush family at Blair House today."

Trump adds: "The former First Lady will be coming over to the White House this morning to be given a tour of the Christmas decorations by Melania. The elegance & precision of the last two days have been remarkable!"

The president and the first lady were among the mourners paying respects to former President George H.W. Bush as he was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday. Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.

Prince Charles plans to attend the funeral for former President George H.W. Bush.

The prince's official residence, Clarence House, tweeted on Tuesday that he would attend the state funeral on Wednesday in Washington. He will be representing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The prince is the heir to the British throne.

The queen released a statement honoring Bush over the weekend, calling the 41st president "a patriot, serving his country with honor and distinction in office and during the Second World War."

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the mourners to pay their respects to Bush as he was lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday.

Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were among the mourners paying their respects to the late President George H.W. Bush as he lay in state in the Capitol rotunda.

The Trumps stood in front of Bush's casket with their eyes closed for a few moments Monday evening before Trump gave a salute. The former president will lie in state until services Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral.

The casket arrived Monday afternoon from Houston, where Bush died Friday at age 94. In remarks at the Capitol, House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the two-term congressman from Texas as a "great man" and a "gentle soul."

Bush chose not to have a formal funeral procession through downtown Washington. Burial at his presidential library at Texas A&M University is Thursday.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) – The casket carrying the remains of George H.W. Bush has arrived at the U.S. Capitol for the nation to begin its formal farewell to the 41st president.

His remains arrived Monday afternoon at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington aboard an aircraft that often serves as Air Force One. Former President George W. Bush, the eldest of the four Bush sons, and his wife, Laura, along with brother Neil Bush and his family, were aboard the plane for the trip from Houston.

Following a short service Monday afternoon, the president’s remains will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Wednesday morning.

Bush died Friday in Houston at age 94. An invitation-only funeral service is set for Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral. President Donald Trump is among the dignitaries who plan to attend.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary Americans, generals and former Cabinet members paid respects at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday to the late U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who died last week at the age of 94 after a life of service as a World War Two hero, head of the CIA and wartime president.

Under the soaring Capitol dome, office workers and tourists walked silently past a flag-draped casket that bore Bush’s body.

They were joined by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who led the U.S. military during the 1991 Gulf War, as well as U.S. generals from that campaign against Iraq and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

Bush, the 41st U.S. president, was remembered as a patrician figure who represents a bygone era of bipartisan civility in American politics.

National flags flew at half-staff on many foreign diplomatic buildings on Washington’s “Embassy Row,” past which Bush’s coffin will be transported on its way to the Washington National Cathedral for a memorial service on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, planned to visit with the mourning family at Blair House, near the White House, on Tuesday.

“The elegance & precision of the last two days have been remarkable!” Trump wrote in a tweet of the Bush memorial events.

Bush’s service dog, a young Labrador retriever named “Sully,” also walked past the casket and sat near it briefly.

Bush, father of the 43rd president, George W. Bush, will be buried on Thursday in Texas.

Mourners lined up to enter the Capitol beginning Monday evening for the public viewing.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened a session of the Senate on Monday heralding the “daring” former naval aviator, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and president who won the Gulf War against the forces of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein. “Year after year, post after post, George Bush stayed the course,” McConnell said.

Bush was elected president in 1988 after serving two terms as President Ronald Reagan’s vice president.

During his four years in the White House, Bush ended the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, steered the United States through the end of the Cold War and condemned China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

But he was dogged by domestic problems, including a sluggish economy. When he ran for re-election in 1992, he was pilloried by Democrats and many Republicans for violating his famous 1988 campaign promise: “Read my lips, no new taxes.”

A Connecticut Yankee from a wealthy family who moved to Texas to be an oilman, Bush has been eulogized as a president with a keen sense of civility and duty.

“His character speaks most, because of his character, how he handled so many important points in our history. The Iraq war, the falling of the Berlin Wall, he wasn’t (saying) that’s all about me,” Theresa Murphy, 64, a retired New York high school history teacher, said on Monday. “Can you imagine what it would look like if our president today did that?”

Bush is the 12th U.S. president to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The first was Abraham Lincoln following his assassination in 1865.

Early in his political career, Bush served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967-1971. He lost bids in 1964 and 1970 for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas.

The federal government and some financial exchanges will be closed on Wednesday for a day of mourning.</s>Family and close friends injected humor into an emotional final funeral service Thursday for president George H.W. Bush. The president died last week in his Houston home at age 94.Thursday's service comes after a state funeral was held at Washington National Cathedral. Bush had been lying in repose at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, where a procession of mourners paid their respects overnight.George P. Bush, one of the president's grandsons, told mourners Thursday that the former president would challenge his grandkids to games like "the first to sleep award." The line drew laughs at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, where the Bush family worshipped.The 42-year-old holds the office of Texas land commissioner. He joined former Secretary of State James Baker in eulogizing the 41st president.George P. Bush is the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He was easily re-elected in November to a second four-year term in Texas.Former Secretary of State James Baker remembered his longtime friend Bush as having "had the courage of a warrior but the greater courage of a peacemaker" during an emotional eulogy.Baker began the eulogy with an apology. Using the nickname "Jefe," which is Spanish for "boss," Baker said he was going to brag about Bush, even though the former president hated boasting.He called Bush the "best one-term president" in the nation's history. He also praised Bush's grace after the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying, that Bush understood that humility toward a fallen adversary "is the very best path."The Rev. Russell Levenson, Jr. told mourners that Bush had a "resolute faith" and once asked what heaven would be like. He told those gathered at St. Martin's Episcopal Church that he imagined Bush was greeted in heaven by his wife, Barbara Bush, "with her hands on her hips, saying 'What took you so long?'"Levenson said it was OK to cry because Bush was never afraid to shed tears himself.Bush's longtime pastor ended the homily with the same prayer used at the president's 1989 inauguration.</s>On the day he became the oldest president in American history, George H.W. Bush wrote one of his final letters. For most of his 94 years, handwritten notes had been Bush's preferred method of connecting with family members, friends, colleagues and foes, whether from an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific or behind a desk in the Oval Office.

On his final birthday, Bush settled for a tweet. His 94-year-old hands, he said, would never forgive him for responding to all of his well-wishers with pen and ink.

"As many of you know, for years I have said the three most important things in life are faith, family and friends," Bush wrote. "My faith has never been stronger. . . . I feel the love of the best friends a man ever had."

Bush, who died Friday and will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol until Wednesday morning, was quickly lauded for his decades of public service, loyalty to loved ones and unflinching sense of civic duty. But his decency and compassion often played out subtly and behind the scenes, with his letters offering the most intimate glimpse of the 41st president.

Bush was "the inveterate letter writer," wrote presidential historian Jon Meacham in his Bush biography, "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush." The notes, Meacham said, "offered a window on an active, sympathetic, eclectic mind."

Many of those letters were published in Bush's memoir, "All the Best." Compiled over decades, the letters cast Bush as a doting son, and as a father mourning the loss of his 3-year-old daughter, Robin.

They capture a folksy Texas oil executive at the beginnings of his political career, and a fierce friend when others were down on their luck. Later in Bush's life, the letters gave voice to a man relishing his post-presidency days: "Barbara is a good cook," he wrote just after Bill Clinton's inauguration. "I AM A GOOD DISH WASHER."

On Monday, Vice President Mike Pence memorialized Bush in the Capitol Rotunda, saying the late president "a record of his life in the thousands of letters that he wrote." Pence said that his own son, a marine aviator, received a note in August 2018 after making his first tailhook landing on the U.S.S. George Herbert Walker Bush.

"Though we have not met," Bush wrote, "I share the pride your father has for your during this momentous occasion, and I wish you many CAVU days ahead."

The acronym, Pence said, is short for "ceiling and visibility unlimited" -- an expression used by Navy pilots since World War II, and Bush's motto for his own life.

The letters are those of a principled statesman. In his last moments in the Oval Office, Bush wrote a single letter to his successor.

"There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I'm not a very good one to give advice; but just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course," Bush wrote to Clinton.

"You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well."

Years later, Clinton did the same for his own successor, George W. Bush. Clinton wrote in his memoir that he "wanted to be gracious and encouraging, as George Bush had been to me."

After the April 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, the National Rifle Association said federal agents were "jack-booted thugs."

Outraged, Bush resigned as an NRA lifetime member. He wrote to the group saying, "Your broadside against federal agents deeply offends my own sense of decency and honor; and it offends my concept of service to this country."

Bush's words were those of a loving husband. During World War II, letters were the only bridge between him and his future wife, Barbara Pierce. In December 1943, he wrote to his "Darling Bar": "I love you precious with all my heart and to know that you love me, means my life."

Less than one year later, Bush was shot down over Chichi Jima in the Pacific. Bush stayed alive until a submarine emerged to rescue him, but the letters from Barbara he carried with him did not. Not long after, Barbara received a letter from George assuring her that "all was well." But the letter was dated before his plane had been hit.

Letters were also crucial to shaping Bush's worldview, said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. In the Navy, one of Bush's tasks was to screen letters written by other enlisted men to make sure they didn't include sensitive military information.

Growing up in Greenwich, Conn., and later at boarding school, Bush had lived a privileged and insular life before Pearl Harbor. But the letters written by his fellow officers showed him a widely diverse slice of America.

"Reading their personal letters really showed him what was different about people, and what was common about people," Engel said.

At times, Bush's letters were born of his greatest pain. In April 1967, he wrote to a friend who had been diagnosed with cancer, insisting that "in this field there is change - there is radical discovery - there is hope." Bush wrote of how he and Barbara were determined to continue treating their daughter, who died of leukemia in 1953, despite a doctor's recommendation to "let nature take its course."

"My point I guess is this," Bush wrote. "Today a kid with leukemia has a much greater chance - and so tomorrow perhaps a gutsy guy with carcinoma might well have it made."

It was that same genuine manner that Bush extended to those with whom he often clashed. In his memoir, Bush wrote that when he was president, Washington Post reporter Ann Devroy "gave me heartburn many mornings when I opened the Post."

But in 1996, when Bush learned that Devroy had cancer, he set aside the bitterness and wrote to her, "I want you to win this battle."

"I want that same toughness that angered me and frustrated me to a fare-thee-well at times to see you through your fight," he told her.

In the preface to his memoir, Bush wrote that the letters and diary entries spanning decades are meant to show the "heartbeat" of an 18-year-old pilot, of a politician living far from home, of a president deciding whether to send someone else's child into combat.

"If you enjoy reading it even just a tenth as much as I've enjoyed living it," Bush wrote, "then that is very good indeed."

He signed the preface: "All the best, George Bush."</s>Nevada mourned the loss of George H.W. Bush on Saturday, a president who developed deep friendships and ties in the state and gave an emotional boost to a Las Vegas charitable organization that helps adults with intellectual disabilities.

WASHINGTON — Nevada joined the nation in mourning the loss of George H.W. Bush, a president who developed deep friendships and ties in the state and gave an emotional boost to a Southern Nevada charitable organization that helps adults with intellectual disabilities.

Bush, who presided over the fall of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Kuwait in the Gulf War, died late Friday at the age of 94.

Las Vegas businessman Sig Rogich, a Bush confidant and former U.S. ambassador to Iceland, developed a strong bond with the president over a lifetime of Air Force One travel, martinis and golf that helped benefit Nevada.

“We developed a friendship, and we never lost it,” Rogich told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a telephone interview.

Rogich was part of the “Tuesday Team,” a group of advertising consultants for the Reagan-Bush presidential campaign, and later the Bush-Quayle campaign that developed TV ads attacking Democratic rival Michael Dukakis’ record on crime and punishment and one showing Dukakis riding in a tank.

Rogich recalled first seeing a news segment showing Dukakis in the tank on TV while he was hosting a party at his Washington, D.C., apartment. Late that night, he said, he wrote a commercial and took it to the campaign’s creative director, Jim Weller, the next day.

Later, Rogich said, he looked at the polling numbers and expressed that maybe the campaign shouldn’t run the ad.

“I thought we could win on our own without it,” he said. “I wanted the president to take office on a high note.”

After the election, Rogich brought Bush to Nevada.

“He loved the state,” Rogich said. “He came several times as president.”

On one occasion, Rogich took him to Opportunity Village, a not-for-profit charity in Las Vegas that assists adults with mental disabilities through vocational training, employment and other programs.

Opportunity Village made the campaign buttons for the Reagan-Bush campaign and the Bush-Quayle campaign.

He was met by entertainer Wayne Newton, said Linda Smith, Opportunity Village vice president of philanthropy and associate executive director.

Bush tied up Las Vegas traffic for hours, staying longer at the facility than planned and meeting with everyone, including those who were intellectually incapable of knowing who the president was or the importance of his position.

That visit in the early 1990s, Rogich said, gave the charity another significant boost. Bush was so taken by the mission and the operation that he helped secure support from a significant donor.

“He helped us that day,” Rogich said.

And he was helpful on other matters in Nevada.

“The president took a lot of pride in the fact that he was helpful here in our state,” Rogich said.

During his term in office, Bush signed into law the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Settlement Act, a bill by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that settled a long-standing dispute over water apportionment from the Truckee and Carson rivers.

The law ended a century of conflicting demands, provided certainty of water supply for municipal and agricultural users, enhanced conservation efforts for threatened and endangered species in Pyramid Lake and improved wetlands in the Lahontan Valley.

Reid was one of the multiple public officials from both sides of the aisle who spoke with fond memories of the late president.

Although from different parties and with different political philosophies, Reid said Bush “was one of the most qualified people ever elected president, and above all, he was among the most decent.”

“He was kind, generous and determined to do the right thing for his country,” Reid said in a statement.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., called Bush an “American patriot.” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said the late president was pragmatic but also a “man of principle.”

Gov. Brian Sandoval, R-Reno, wrote on Twitter: “I am deeply saddened by the passing of former President George H.W. Bush. He was a great man who gave much to his country. Lauralyn and I send our prayers to his family. May he rest in peace.”

A memorial service at the National Cathedral will be held before the body is sent to a funeral in Texas.

Prior to the services, the president’s body will lie in state under the Capitol Rotunda.

Trump said he would send Air Force One to Texas to bring the president’s body to Washington. Trump said it is “a special tribute that he deserves very much.”

Rogich said he traveled “five, six, seven thousand miles on Air Force One” with President Bush to foreign countries and every U.S. state. Rogich said Bush had a sense of decorum.

“I never saw him less than presidential,” he said.

He also liked jokes and gags.

“We shared a good martini on occasion,” Rogich recalled. “And we always shared a lot of laughs.”

Bush would also come to Vegas, while he was in the White House and after, to visit friends and to relax.

“We did see some shows and we did play some golf,” Rogich recalled.

They played Shadow Creek Golf Course, Spanish Trail Country Club and others.

When the energy secretary came to an administration meeting to complain about Rogich’s advocacy against the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, the tiff between the two was relayed to Bush.

“He just told me to stick to my guns, or something like that,” Rogich recalled.

“I love him,” Rogich said. “He had a great sense of humor and a deep passion.”

The Cold War ended during Bush’s presidency. The Berlin Wall came down. Bush, a World War II bomber pilot, was commander in chief during the Gulf War, leading an international coalition with great support by the American people.

Bush’s popularity topped 91 percent after the war, before a declining economy and third-party candidate H. Ross Perot helped Democrat Bill Clinton defeat the Republican incumbent in the 1992 presidential election.

As he left the White House, Bush left a handwritten note to Clinton in the Oval Office, humble and heartening words of support for the new president.

“I will never forget the handwritten letters he wrote me when I did something he deemed worthy of a few generous words,” Reid recalled. “He was known throughout his career for sending these types of personalized notes to people, and I will always cherish the ones he sent to me.”

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.

Republican George H.W. Bush carried 65 percent of the Nye County vote in the 1988 presidential election, defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis, who won 31 percent. Bush carried nearly 59 percent of the Nevada vote in 1988. Bush won 34 percent of the Nye County vote in 1992, narrowly defeating Democrat Bill Clinton at 32 percent and Ross Perot of the Reform Party at 31 percent. Clinton won Nevada in 1992 with about 37.3 percent of the vote to 34.7 percent for Bush and about 26.2 percent for Perot. Bush carried 69 percent of the Esmeralda County vote in the 1988 presidential election, defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis, who won 26 percent. Bush won 37.8 percent of the Esmeralda County vote in 1992, narrowly defeating Ross Perot of the Reform Party at 37.7 percent and Democrat Bill Clinton at 20 percent. President Donald J. Trump has proclaimed today, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, as a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of former President George H.W. Bush. The U.S. government is closed today along with financial markets such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. “Out of respect for the 41st President of the United States and to honor his vast contributions to our country during his lifetime, and consistent with the Presidential Proclamation, the United States Postal Service will suspend regular mail deliveries, retail services and administrative office activity on Dec. 5,” the U.S. Postal Service said in statement. “We will provide limited package delivery service on that day to ensure that our network remains fluid and we do not experience any impacts to our package delivery operations that might negatively affect our customers or business partners during the remainder of our busy holiday season,” the statement added.</s>
• Former President George H.W. Bush has died at age 94
• Social media reacts to the death of former Pres. George H.W. Bush
• Houstonians pay their respects at the monument of George H.W. Bush
• Flags at half-staff for 30 days following George H.W. Bush's death

The nation bid a final farewell to late President George H.W. Bush in a ceremony at Washington National Cathedral.The ceremony caps 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.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 Bush's service dog Sully also visited the president's casket in the Capitol Rotunda. Sully served faithfully and was treated as a member of the family as Bush's casket left a Houston funeral home on Monday.The golden lab came from America's VetDogs non-profit organization in New York and began providing assistance and companionship to the president in June. Sully will go on to help wounded soldiers.Thousands of people have waited in line for hours to pay their respects to the president, who has been lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda since Monday.President Trump has ordered the federal government closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning. The day of mourning means the major U.S. stock markets and some banks will be closed.The U.S. Postal Service will not make regular deliveries. Flags on public buildings are flying at half-staff for 30 days.Following the service at the National Cathedral, Bush will be flown to Houston on Wednesday with a scheduled arrival of around 4:30 p.m. CST. His body will be transported by motorcade to St. Martin's Episcopal Church, where he and his wife regularly worshiped.A public viewing of Bush's casket will be held at the church starting after 6 p.m. CST Wednesday until 6 a.m. CST on Thursday.On Thursday, a private funeral service with about 1,200 invited guests will be held at the church starting at 10 a.m. CST. After the hour-long service, a motorcade will transport Bush's casket to a train station north of Houston, near the international airport named after Bush.A ceremony will be held at the train station as Bush's casket is loaded onto a Union Pacific train. The train will take about 2 hours to travel roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the city of College Station, home to Bush's presidential library at Texas A&M University.The locomotive has been painted the colors of the Air Force One plane used during Bush's presidency and bears the number "4141" in honor of the 41st president. The casket will be in a car with Plexiglas windows to allow people to see it during the trip, according to McGrath, the family spokesman.The train is scheduled to arrive in College Station on Thursday around 3:45 p.m. CST. Bush's casket will then be transported by motorcade to the presidential library, where he will be buried at the gated family plot near his wife and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3. Barbara Bush died on April 17 at their Houston home. The couple was married for 73 years, longer than any other U.S. presidential couple.Ceremonies at the presidential library will include a missing man formation flyover. The casket will then be rolled along a path through woods, over a bridge and over a creek for burial during a private graveside service with Bush's family.</s>President Trump arrives at U.S. Capitol to pay respects to former President George H.W. Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump arrives at U.S. Capitol to pay respects to former President George H.W. Bush.</s>WASHINGTON -- The nation's 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.

A viewing for the 41st president at the hushed Capitol Rotunda drew to a close on Wednesday morning.

A ceremony 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.

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, Maine, 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.

FOX31 will provide live coverage of the funeral on-air and online.

On Tuesday, soldiers, citizens in wheelchairs and long lines of others on foot wound through the 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.

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.

Trump ordered the federal government closed Wednesday for a national day of mourning. Flags on public buildings are flying at half-staff for 30 days.

As at notable moments in his life, Bush brought together Republicans and Democrats in his death, and not only the VIPs.

Members of the public who never voted for the man waited in the same long lines as the rest, attesting that Bush possessed the dignity and grace that deserved to be remembered by their presence on a cold overcast day in the capital.

"I'm just here to pay my respects," said Jane Hernandez, a retired physician in the heavily Democratic city and suburbs. "I wasn't the biggest fan of his presidency, but all in all he was a good, sincere guy doing a really hard job as best he could."

Bush's service dog, Sully, was taken to the viewing, too -- his main service these last months since Barbara Bush's death in April being to rest his head on her husband's lap. Service dogs are trained to do that.

The CIA also honored Bush, the only spy chief to become president, as three agency directors past and present joined the public in the viewing.

In the midst of the period of mourning, first lady Melania Trump gave Laura Bush, one of her predecessors, a tour of holiday decorations at the White House, a "sweet visit during this somber week," as Mrs. Bush's Instagram account put it.

And the Trumps visited members of the Bush family at the Blair House presidential guesthouse, where they are staying.

Former President George W. Bush and his wife greeted the Trumps outside before everyone went in for the private, 20-minute visit.

Although Trump will attend Bush's service, he is not among the eulogists.

They are, in addition to Bush's eldest son, Alan Simpson, the former senator and acerbic wit from Wyoming; Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who also gave a eulogy for Ronald Reagan; and presidential historian Jon Meacham.

People lined up before dawn to pay respects to the 41st president, a son and father of privilege now celebrated by everyday citizens for his common courtesies and depth of experience.

"He was so qualified, and I think he was just a decent man," said Sharon Terry, touring Washington with friends from an Indianapolis garden club.

Said her friend Sue Miller, also in line for the viewing: "I actually think I underestimated him when he was in office. My opinion of him went up seeing how he conducted himself as a statesman afterward."

Fred Curry, one of the few African-Americans in line, is a registered Democrat from Hyattsville, Maryland, who voted for Bush in 1988, the election won by the one-term president.

"Honestly I just liked him," he said. "He seemed like a sincere and decent man and you couldn't argue with his qualifications."

Inside the Capitol, Sully, the 2-year-old Labrador retriever assigned to Bush, sat by the casket in the company of people who came to commemorate Bush's signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the 1990 law that, among its many provisions, required businesses that prohibit pets to give access to service dogs.

"After Mrs. Bush's death, general companionship was a big part of Sully's job," John Miller, president and CEO of America's VetDogs, said in a phone interview. "One of the things that I think was important to the president was the rest command, where Sully would rest his head on the president's lap."

The law was just one point of intersection for Bush and Dole, now 95, who was one of its leading advocates in the Senate.

They were fellow World War II veterans, Republican Party leaders, fierce rivals for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination won by Bush ("Stop lying about my record," Dole snapped at Bush) and skilled negotiators.

Dole, an Army veteran hit by German machine gunfire in Italy, has gone through life with a disabled right arm. Bush, a Navy pilot, survived a bail-out from his stricken aircraft over the Pacific and an earlier crash landing.

On Tuesday, Dole was helped out of his wheelchair by an aide, slowly steadied himself and saluted Bush with his left hand, his chin quivering.

Dignitaries had come forward on Monday, too, to honor the Texan whose service to his country extended three quarters of a century, from World War II through his final years as an advocate for volunteerism and relief for people displaced by natural disaster.</s>By WILL WEISSERT, NOMAAN MERCHANT and CALVIN WOODWARD

HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush’s family and friends praised his faith, humility and patience Thursday, saying the former president embodied courage and grace along with his unique brand of humor and kindness as days of national mourning in Washington took on a more personal feel during a final Texas farewell.

Addressing a funeral at Houston’s St. Martin’s Episcopal Church where the 41st president and his family regularly worshipped, Bush’s former secretary of state and confidant for decades, James Baker, addressed him as “jefe,” Spanish for “boss.” He praised Bush as a “truly beautiful human being” who had the “courage of a warrior but the greater courage of a peacemaker.”

“The world became a better place because George Bush occupied the White House for four years,” said Baker, who concluded his remarks fighting back tears.

Following the services, a special funeral train was carrying Bush’s remains through small towns to the family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station. His final resting place is alongside his wife and Robin Bush, the daughter they lost to leukemia at age 3.

Thursday’s flavor was distinctly Texas. In place of most Washington dignitaries were top Houston athletes including the NFL Texans’ defensive end J.J. Watt — displaying Bush’s love for sports — and Chuck Norris, who played TV’s “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

The St. Martin’s Parish Choir performed “This is My Country,” which was also sung at Bush’s presidential inauguration in 1989. Those gathered also heard a prayer stressing the importance of service and selflessness that the president himself offered for the country at the start of his term.

President Donald Trump wasn’t in attendance Thursday, but Baker seemed to draw a gentle contrast by saying Bush respected vanquished adversaries. He said that Bush’s wish for a “kinder, gentler nation” was genuine, not cynical.

There were rousing renditions of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Onward Christian Soldiers,” but also many of Bush’s country favorites. The Oak Ridge Boys recalled performing for him for decades and joked that Bush “fancied himself to be a good bass singer. He was not.” They then sang “Amazing Grace” and Reba McEntire offered a musical version of “The Lord’s Prayer.”

The previous evening, more than 11,000 people paid their respects as his casket that lay in repose in Houston all night.

George P. Bush, the former president’s grandson and the only member of the political dynasty still holding elected office, as Texas land commissioner, subsequently struck a more personal tone in his eulogy of the man he and the younger generations called “gampy.”

“He left a simple, yet profound legacy to his children, to his grandchildren and to his country: service,” George P. Bush said.

The church’s pastor, Rev. Russell Levenson, Jr., recalled the Bushes regularly attending services there and offering to give up their seats to others on days when the church was particularly crowded.

“He was ready for heaven and heaven was ready for him,” Levenson said of Bush’s declining in health in recent years. He also suggested that when Bush died, he would meet his wife of 73 years, Barbara, in heaven and she would playfully demand “What took you so long?”

Indeed, the funeral occurred at the same church where services were held in April for Barbara Bush, which was remembered for an emotional scene when the former president gazed from his wheelchair up at her casket, then shook hands with well-wishers.

At Wednesday’s Washington funeral service at the National Cathedral, there was high praise for the last of the presidents to have fought in World War II — and a hefty dose of humor about a man whose speaking delivery was once described as a cross between Mister Rogers and John Wayne. Three former presidents and Trump watched George W. Bush eulogized his father as “the brightest of a thousand points of light.”

The cathedral service was a tribute to the patriarch of one of the nation’s most-powerful political families — it occupied the White House for a dozen years —and to a faded political era that prized military service and public responsibility. Like Baker’s address Thursday, it was laced with indirect comparisons to Trump but was not consumed by them, as speakers focused on Bush’s public life and character — with plenty of cracks about his goofy side, too.

“He was a man of such great humility,” said Alan Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming. Those who travel “the high road of humility in Washington, D.C.,” he added pointedly, “are not bothered by heavy traffic.”

Trump sat Wednesday with his wife, a trio of ex-presidents and their wives, several of them sharp critics of his presidency and one of them, Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic foe. Apart from courteous nods and some handshakes, there was little interaction between Trump and the others.

George W. Bush broke down briefly at the end of his eulogy while invoking the daughter his parents lost in 1953 and his mother, who died in April. He took comfort in knowing “Dad is hugging Robin and holding Mom’s hand again.”

Bush’s death makes Carter, also 94 but more than 100 days younger, the oldest living ex-president.

Weissert reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer David J. Phillip contributed to this report.
The casket for former U.S. President George H. W. Bush arrives at the National Cathedral.