Funeral plans for former President Ford detailed

Palm Desert (Calif), Dec 28: A week of public tributes to former President Gerald Ford will stretch from the California desert to the nation's capital and back to his boyhood home of Grand Rapids, Michigan, for burial, organisers said.

A private funeral service for family and close friends of the 38th US president is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, California, which Ford and his wife Betty attended for the past three decades.

Ford's body will then lie in repose at the church until Saturday morning when, following a departure ceremony, his remains will be flown to Washington, DC.

Upon arrival in Washington, Ford's casket will be taken by motorcade to the World War Two memorial, arriving at the US House of Representatives that evening for a state funeral.

Ford's casket will be carried up the East House Steps on the East Capitol Plaza in honor of his 24 years as a US Congressman and his remains will be met by a group of his former House colleagues.

His casket will lie in repose at the open House doors, honoring his time in Congress. The casket will then be carried through Statuary Hall to the rotunda to lie in state.

Next Wednesday, his body will be flown to Grand Rapids for burial in a hillside tomb overlooking the Ford presidential library and museum.

Funeral plans for Ford, who died on Tuesday at age 93, were outlined by his longtime aide and family friend Gregory Willard at a news conference in Palm Desert, near Ford's main retirement home in Rancho Mirage, California yesterday.

Reuters