WASHINGTON — The Latest on events honoring late former President George H.W. Bush (all times local):
6:05 p.m.
A crowd of about 300 invited guests, including Astros manager A.J. Hinch, has greeted the arrival of a plane carrying former President George H.W. Bush’s remains to Texas.
The military aircraft, nicknamed Special Air Mission 41 in honor of the 41st president, landed in Houston on Wednesday evening after a flight from Washington. Bush will lie in repose overnight at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.
Among those in attendance were past and present members of Houston’s various professional sports teams, including Hinch, former Texans receiver Andre Johnson and former Rockets player Calvin Murphy.
Bush was a big sports fan and regularly attended Astros, Rockets and Texans games. He and his wife, Barbara, could often be seen sitting behind home plate at Astros games.
A military color guard stood at attention as the hearse bearing the casket of former President George H.W. Bush arrived arrived at the National Cathedral in Washington. (Dec. 5)
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6 p.m.
The plane carrying former President George H.W. Bush’s remains has landed at Houston’s Ellington Field.
Bush’s body returned to Texas on Wednesday evening on a plane from Washington. The same military aircraft, nicknamed Special Air Mission 41 in honor of the 41st president, had taken his body to Washington on Monday to lie in state at the Capitol. A funeral service was held Wednesday morning at Washington National Cathedral.
Bush will lie in repose overnight at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.
Then his casket will be loaded onto a train for a journey to College Station, where he will be laid to rest near his presidential library at Texas A&M University. He will be buried next to his wife, Barbara, and daughter Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3.
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4:10 p.m.
Mourners wanting to pay their respects to former President George H.W. Bush began lining up outside a Houston church hours before his visitation is due to start.
The first people in line arrived Wednesday morning, almost 10 hours before St. Martin’s Episcopal Church was scheduled to open to visitors.
Pennie Werth-Bobian was at the front of the line. The 56-year-old from Tomball, Texas, says that she used to visit with Bush while a friend of hers cut his hair and that they became friends. She says the second time they met, he told her to call him George.
Bush’s casket is being flown back to Houston after his state funeral in Washington. Another funeral service will be held Thursday morning at St. Martin’s, and he is due to be buried Thursday afternoon.
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This item has been corrected to show Pennie’s last name is Werth-Bobian, not Worth-Bobian.
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2:30 p.m.
Former President George H.W. Bush has left Washington for the last time. Bush’s flag-draped casket was carried in a motorcade to Joint Base Andrews outside the capital city following his state funeral at Washington National Cathedral.
An aircraft that often serves as Air Force One and designated “Special Air Mission 41” is flying the casket to Houston. Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush waved from the top of the stairway before boarding the plane, followed by other family members.
In Houston, Bush’s body will be transported by motorcade to St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. A public viewing of Bush’s casket will be held at the church until early Thursday, followed by a private funeral. Burial will take place at the presidential library in College Station, Texas.
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1:25 p.m.
The hearse carrying former President George H.W. Bush’s casket has left Washington National Cathedral following his state funeral.
Former President George W. Bush says he told his father just before he died last week in Houston at age 94 that he had been a “wonderful dad” and that he loved him. Delivering a eulogy at the elder Bush’s funeral Wednesday, George W. Bush said the last words his father “would ever say on earth were, ‘I love you, too.’”
George W. Bush extolled his father for his service as president and as a role model as a loving husband, father and grandfather.
Bush choked up at the end of his eulogy. He patted his father’s flag-draped coffin twice as he went back to his seat.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter sat in a front-row pew. President Donald Trump shook hands with the Obamas when he entered.
Bush’s burial will be in Texas.
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12:45 p.m.
Former President George W. Bush says he told his father just before he died that he had been a “wonderful dad” and that he loved him. Delivering a eulogy at the elder Bush’s funeral on Wednesday, George W. Bush said the last words his father “would ever say on earth were, ‘I love you, too.’”
George W. Bush extolled his father not only for his service as president but also as a role model as a loving husband, father and grandfather.
Bush choked up at the end of his eulogy before regaining his composure. He patted his father’s flag-draped coffin twice as he went back to his seat at the Washington National Cathedral. Former first lady Laura Bush wiped her eyes with a tissue as her husband sat next to her.
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12:40 p.m.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, who left the U.S. after the killing of a Saudi journalist in Turkey, has returned to Washington for events around the state funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.
The Saudi embassy says that Prince Khalid bin Salman is in Washington and that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir is leading the kingdom’s delegation at Wednesday’s service.
Khalid bin Salman is the younger brother of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who the CIA has assessed with high confidence ordered the killing of Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi (jah-MAHL’ khahr-SHOHK’-jee). The ambassador left the United States in early October after Khashoggi went missing on a visit to a Saudi consulate in Turkey. There was speculation at the time that he would not return.
Saudi prosecutors have said a 15-man team sent to Istanbul killed Khashoggi with tranquilizers and dismembered his body.
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12:40 p.m.
Former Sen. Alan Simpson has hailed his old friend George H.W. Bush as man of humility, a commodity the Wyoming Republican says is rare in the capital.
At the Washington National Cathedral memorial service for the late president on Wednesday, Simpson said, “Those who travel the high road of humility in Washington, D.C., are not bothered by heavy traffic.”
Simpson recalled that once while he was under fire by the press, Bush told him to “wave to your pals over there in the media” as they passed photographers.
Simpson says Bush accepted a 1990 bipartisan budget deal that included a tax increase, despite his campaign pledge to not raise taxes. He says Bush said, “OK, go for it, but it will be a real punch in the gut.” Simpson says “his own party turned on him” for that, contributing to his 1992 re-election defeat.
Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.
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12:25 p.m.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has praised former U.S. President George H.W. Bush as a strong world leader who helped oversee the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union and was “responsible for the North American Free Trade Agreement” with Canada and Mexico.
With President Donald Trump, a sharp NAFTA critic, seated in the front row at Bush’s funeral, Mulroney said Wednesday the deal “created the largest and richest free trade area in the history of the world” and was “recently modernized and improved by new administrations.” Trump had called the trade deal unfair to the U.S. and moved to replace it.
Mulroney said Bush also deserves credit for the Americans with Disabilities Act and revising the Clean Air Act. He said, “There’s a word for this. It’s called leadership.”
Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.
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12:15 p.m.
Former President George W. Bush appeared to hand former first lady Michelle Obama something at his father’s funeral, recreating a moment from Sen. John McCain’s funeral earlier this year.
At McCain’s funeral, Bush and Obama were seatmates and he appeared to hand her something during a eulogy. The bipartisan moment went viral, and Obama later told NBC’s “Today” show Bush slipped her a mint.
On Wednesday, Bush dug into his pocket right before he shook the hands of the former presidents and their wives gathered for the funeral of his father, former President George H.W. Bush. He appeared to switch something into his right hand before he shook Mrs. Obama’s hand and then hand something to her. She smiled at him after the exchange.
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12:05 p.m.
Humor is creeping its way into the somber ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral to remember the life of former President George H.W. Bush.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham was the first speaker on Wednesday and said that on the primary campaign trail in New Hampshire once, Bush grabbed the hand of a department store mannequin while asking for votes. Meacham says when Bush realized his mistake he said, “Never know. Gotta ask.”
Meacham recounted how comedian Dana Carvey once said that the key to doing a perfect impersonation of the 41st president was “Mr. Rogers trying to be John Wayne.”
Looking ahead to the 1988 election, Bush once said: “It’s no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or the other.”
And Meacham said that late in his presidency, Bush’s tongue ran amok when he said: “We are enjoying sluggish times, but we’re not enjoying them very much.”
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12:05 p.m.
George H.W. Bush’s biographer is hailing the late president as a noble man who made the world better and inadvertently made it chuckle.
Historian Jon Meacham has told mourners at a Washington memorial service that Bush’s credo was, “Tell the truth, don’t blame people, be strong, do your best, try hard, forgive, stay the course.”
Meacham said Abraham Lincoln’s “better angels of our nature” and Bush’s thousand points of light are “companion verses in America’s national hymn.” Meacham says Bush “made our lives and the lives of nations freer, better, warmer and nobler.”
President Donald Trump has mocked the “points of light” phrase at some of his campaign rallies this year. He contrasted it with his own campaign slogan, saying “Putting America first, we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one.”
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11:05 a.m.
It’s an extraordinary scene inside the Washington National Cathedral, where former world leaders are mingling, waiting for a ceremony remembering former President George H.W. Bush to begin.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter are seated in a front-row pew.
President Donald Trump walked in and shook hands with Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, who greeted him by saying “Good morning.” Trump did not shake hands with Bill and Hillary Clinton, who looked straight ahead.
Bill Clinton and Mrs. Obama smiled and chatted as music played. Carter is seated silently next to Hillary Clinton in the cavernous cathedral. Obama cracked up laughing at someone’s quip. Vice President Mike Pence shook Carter’s hand.
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11 a.m.
The casket of former President George H.W. Bush has arrived at Washington National Cathedral in a lengthy, slow-moving motorcade that transported his family, friends and dignitaries.
Bush’s flag-draped coffin left the Capitol on Wednesday morning and was moved to the packed cathedral. The former president had been lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda since Monday.
World figures, members of Congress, President Donald Trump and all four ex-presidents are attending the ceremony. Bush’s son former President George W. Bush will give a eulogy, bidding a final Washington farewell to his father, who died Friday in Houston at age 94.
Bush’s remains will be flown to Houston to lie in repose before a private burial Thursday at his family plot on the presidential library grounds at Texas A&M University in College Station.
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10:55 a.m.
The hearse bearing the coffin of George H.W. Bush has driven slowly past the White House in a symbolic final nod at the building where he served as the nation’s 41st president.
The funeral procession of limousines on Wednesday was carrying Bush’s casket from the Capitol, where thousands of mourners had been paying respects to him since late Monday.
It was en route to the National Cathedral, where President Donald Trump, all four surviving former presidents and hundreds of other dignitaries and mourners were set for a memorial service.
Bush died last week at age 94. He is to be buried Thursday in Texas.
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10:50 a.m.
The U.N. Security Council has paid tribute to the late U.S. President George H.W. Bush, standing silently in his memory.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara (ah-lah-SAHN’ WAH’-tah-rah) was presiding over the U.N.’s most powerful body on Wednesday and asked the 15 members and diplomats in the crowded council chamber to observe a minute of silence to honor Bush at the start of a meeting on sustaining peace after conflict.
Speaking on behalf of the council, Ouattara said “President Bush left us following a long, illustrious career serving his country,” including as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, where he presided over the Security Council in 1972.
Ouattara conveyed the council’s “warm gratitude to the people and government of the United States of America” and condolences on Bush’s death.
Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.
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10:35 a.m.
Former President George H.W. Bush’s casket has left the U.S. Capitol for a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral.
Family, friends, congressional leaders and others gathered with military brass on the steps of the Capitol for the send-off Wednesday as cannons echoed a salute and a military band played “Hail to the Chief.”
Bush’s flag-draped coffin was carried to a waiting hearse for the procession to the cathedral. His son former President George W. Bush put his hand over heart at the plaza.
The 41st president had been lying in state since late Monday in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved for few. Hundreds of visitors, including many former White House officials, arrived to pay tribute. Bush died last week in Houston at age 94.
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9:40 a.m.
Friends and family are gathering at Washington National Cathedral under tight security for a funeral service honoring late former President George H.W. Bush.
Wednesday’s national funeral service will cap three days of remembrance by dignitaries and ordinary citizens. It will bring together world envoys, the four remaining ex-presidents and President Donald Trump.
After Wednesday’s service, 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.
The 41st president oversaw the post-Cold War transition and led a successful Gulf War, only to lose re-election in a generational shift to Bill Clinton in 1992. He died last week in Houston at age 94.
