Firefighters salute as the hearse carrying the body of Nancy Reagan makes its way to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, near Porter Ranch, Calif. She will be buried Friday morning next to former President Ronald Reagan, her husband of 52 years who died in 2004 from Alzheimer’s disease. Attendees included the children of Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, and Dennis Revell, the widower of the former president’s late daughter Maureen.
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From 1981-89 she was one of the most influential first ladies in United States history, initially criticised for an expensive renovation of the White House, but later becoming a much-loved figure.
Deputy Chief David Livingstone of the Simi Valley police says officers were responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle about three-quarters of a mile downhill from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the public viewing for the former first lady was being held.
The day began with a private ceremony for family and close friends at a funeral home in Santa Monica, followed by a public viewing at the library.
The first person lined up for the visitation was Oxnard resident Warren Weston, who said Nancy Reagan “harkens back to an era when we all got along”.
His daughter, Tina Choate, said: “And he was a wonderful governor, too”.
Retired teacher Mary Ellen Gruendyke, who arose early so she could drive almost 100 miles from her Riverside home, said she admired Mrs. Reagan for her “Just Say No” campaign against drugs and the president for infusing a sense of patriotism in the country.
“One of our saddest situations is we have so many people who have called or written, saying they would like to attend, but unfortunately it needs to be by invitation only because we only have so much room on the lawn”, Heubusch said.
Reagan will lie in repose at the library on Wednesday and Thursday before a funeral service Friday.
“America just seemed to be more whole in those days, and I think that’s because Ronald and Nancy Reagan, they just drew people in”, he said.
Ryan approached the casket Wednesday, bowed his head in prayer and made the sign of the cross before leaving. Just as she was always by his side in life, Nancy Reagan will be laid to rest just inches from her husband on a hillside tomb facing west toward the Pacific Ocean. Scheduled to attend are former president George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush, former first ladies Rosalynn Carter and Sen.
Nancy Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, has arrived for a brief service at a Santa Monica, California, mortuary before a motorcade takes her mother’s casket to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
James A. Baker, who served in the Reagan administration, and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw also will give remarks during the private ceremony officiated by the Rev. Stuart Kenworthy, vicar of Washington National Cathedral.
The public will be allowed to view the casket between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time on Thursday.
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