Warm Eulogies On a Windy Winter's Day

"I really respected him," said Buchanan, who was raised in Sweetwater, Tex. "He was Middle America. He was someone all of Middle America could identify with. He made his own coffee, put out the garbage and got the newspaper and his kids all the same -- normal people. He was really the last of them."

Andy Bittner, one of the cathedral's official greeters who was on hand to help elderly mourners navigate the gusty cathedral steps yesterday, explained that the building, with its mammoth twin towers, can be one of the chilliest places in town on a windy day.

"It's real dynamic," he said. "It absolutely is. . . . I call these two towers sky rakes, because that's what they do." He said they catch the wind and dump it "down on your head."

Whatever the local forecast for wind and weather might be, he said, at the cathedral in winter, "add 15 miles per hour and drop 10 degrees."

Washington's final goodbye to the late president began yesterday morning when his body was taken from the Capitol Rotunda, where it had lain in state since Saturday.

As several hundred spectators gathered at Constitution and Delaware avenues NE to see the president off, a military honor guard marched up the Capitol steps at 8:43 a.m. and formed a cordon through which the coffin would soon pass. A motorcade of black limousines pulled up at 8:57 a.m., and moments later Ford's flag-draped coffin was carried to a hearse amid an artillery salute and the music of "Hail to the Chief."

Betty Ford, who had been standing with a crowd of people at the base of the steps, was then walked to a waiting limousine and helped inside by a military officer.

With that, the caravan left for Washington National Cathedral. Authorities said there were no traffic or security problems during the day's events.

Terry Davidson, who waited at the corner of Constitution and Delaware to watch, said he came out of respect. "He's one of the first presidents I can remember when I was a kid," said Davidson, 42. "He was a good man, very decent and honest. He was right to try to move the nation forward.''

Along Constitution Avenue, a family of five, newly transplanted from Cleveland to Manassas Park, had watched in the cold in front of the National Gallery of Art.

Only Bruce Haber, 48, who works for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, recalled the late president.

His wife, Christine, 38, was in elementary school when Ford was president. "I wasn't really politically aware then," she said. "I'm learning a lot about him right now."

Clad in thick coats and mittens, they said they were not bothered by the chilly morning. "We're from Cleveland," Haber said. "This is warm!"

The route of the cortege went along Pennsylvania Avenue, where the procession slowed outside the White House and staffers lined up to bid Ford goodbye.

After the cathedral service, the procession headed to Andrews Air Force Base. There an honor guard removed the coffin from the hearse and carried it to a waiting plane as an American flag carried by the guard snapped in the wind.

As the presidential jet rumbled down the tarmac, former colleagues placed their hands over their hearts, and one, former housing secretary Carla Hills, lifted her arm and waved farewell.

Staff writers Henri E. Cauvin, Hamil R. Harris, Allison Klein, Carol D. Leonnig, Jerry Markon, Sue Anne Pressley Montes, Mary Beth Sheridan and Eric M. Weiss contributed to this report.