Michigan hometown pays final respects to Ford

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Jan 3 (Reuters) Thousands of people filed past the casket of former President Gerald Ford today, hours before a private burial service in his hometown of Grand Rapids that concludes a week of national memorials.

With Ford's flag-draped casket in repose at his presidential museum, many residents waited hours to pay their respects to a president many remembered as a long-serving local congressman who embodied simple, Midwestern virtues.

''I had a great respect for him. I think one of the great things about him was that he had no great ego, which is practically impossible in politics,'' said Anna Mae Bush, 35, who was waiting to file past the casket.

Gerald Bagouckis, a 56-year-old Vietnam veteran, said Ford helped him receive federal veterans benefits when Ford represented the Grand Rapids area in Congress in 1971.

''He was a very good man,'' Bagouckis said. ''I feel an affinity for him as one veteran to another.'' The casket containing Ford's body arrived in Grand Rapids yesterday afternoon as a band played the fight song from Ford's alma mater, the University of Michigan, and tens of thousands lined the streets to watch the 75-car motorcade.

Earlier yesterday, a national day of mourning that shut US government offices and financial markets, more than 3,000 people -- including all three living former US presidents -- attended a memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Former President Jimmy Carter, 82, who beat Ford in the 1976 election to become president, is scheduled to speak at today's service at Grace Episcopal Church.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who served as chief of staff in the Ford White House, is also scheduled to speak.

Burial will follow at the presidential museum on the banks of the Grand River.

REUTERS PB BD2124