AP News, December 29th, 2006
Soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and florists prepared Thursday for the first memorial ceremonies honoring former President Gerald R. Ford.
A military honor guard and band rehearsed crisp rituals at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, where Ford's family will have a private prayer service Friday before a public visitation lasting into Saturday.
The nation's 38th chief executive, who died Tuesday at age 93, and his wife, Betty, had worshipped at St. Margaret's since they moved from Washington, D.C., to the California desert in 1977.
An oil portrait of Ford, dropped off by a local artist, was placed in the church foyer, where it seemed to gaze over the rehearsals.
Florists brought in with an organizing team from Washington worked in a kitchen next door arranging piles of white stargazer lilies, calla lilies and orchids flown in from Houston.
About 100 representatives from all branches of the military were present to take part in the honor guard, said Betsy Judge, a retired Marine Corps officer acting as spokeswoman for the contingent.
Uniformed pallbearers practiced walking up and down the short flight of steps in front of the church, miming carrying a casket until a black Cadillac hearse pulled up with an empty flag-draped casket that they used as a stand-in. The procedure was repeated over and over.
"They will rehearse for precision _ the precision that is deserved for a commander in chief," Marine spokeswoman Lt. Christy Kercheval said.
The ceremony was specifically crafted to reflect Ford's naval service, said Barbara Owens, a spokeswoman for military organizers. A sailor was deputized to carry the presidential seal.
On Saturday, Ford's body will be flown to Washington on a Boeing 747 from the presidential fleet for ceremonies before continuing to Grand Rapids, Mich., to be entombed at his presidential museum next week.
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Associated Press writer Allison Hoffman contributed to this report.
