U.S. Capitol Welcomes Ford Mourners

The Capitol opened its doors to ordinary people wishing to pay last respects to Gerald R. Ford after dignitaries praised the 38th president as a healer and a rock in the dispiriting aftermath of his predecessor's disgraced presidency. Hundreds of people filed into the Capitol Rotunda late Saturday to view Ford's closed, flag-draped casket. They remembered a leader without pretensions or even the ambition to be president until the job was thrust upon him in the last chapter of Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal in August 1974. Whether teenagers in sweat shirts or mothers pushing infants in strollers, they flowed into the night in two steady streams along velvet ropes encircling the casket, pausing only for the periodic changing of the military guard standing watch. Public visitation was resuming Sunday. MORE ON THIS STORY