World leaders assemble for final farewell

Years ago, Reagan had asked invited several speakers to take part.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- With high tribute and tender recollection, the nation is bidding final farewell to Ronald Reagan in funeral rites shaped by the 40th president himself to evoke his lifelong optimism and certainty about America and its place in the world.
President Bush, previewing his eulogy, remembered Reagan on Thursday as "a great man, a historic leader and a national treasure." Then, like tens of thousands of Americans from all walks in life, he paid silent homage before the former president's coffin as his body lay in state on a black velvet-covered catafalque that once bore the coffin of President Lincoln.
America's four living ex-presidents -- Ford, Carter, Clinton, Bush -- and dozens of current and former world leaders were among those assembling for today's funeral service at Washington National Cathedral as America mustered its most magnificent tributes for a last goodbye before Reagan's sunset burial at his presidential library near Los Angeles.
American guns around the world were poised to fire in Reagan's honor -- at noontime, 21-gun salutes at every U.S. military base with the artillery and manpower to do it; at dusk, another worldwide round of 50-gun salutes.
Worked on some details
Reagan, the Hollywood-smooth former actor who died Saturday at age 93, had been thinking about his last rites since he became president in 1981 and even personally invited several speakers to take part.
Always proud to have put the first woman on the Supreme Court, years ago Reagan asked Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to read at his funeral. He chose John Winthrop's 1630 sermon that inspired Reagan's description of America as a shining "city upon a hill."
The first President Bush, too, long ago got his invitation to speak, back when he was serving as Reagan's vice president.
Others to deliver tributes to the former president were former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a close friend to the Reagans, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom Reagan asked to speak years ago. Thatcher, who has given up public speaking after a series of smalls strokes, taped her remarks months ago.
Thatcher and Mulroney, along with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, were among the 1980s titans of power who paid private visits to Nancy Reagan on Thursday at Blair House, the presidential guest house across the street from the White House.
Mrs. Thatcher wrote in a condolence book for her good friend, "To Ronnie, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant."' Reagan and Thatcher shared a world view, conservative politics and enduring mutual affection.
Joanne Drake, a Reagan family spokeswoman, said the former first lady, at age 82, was greatly comforted by the public outpouring of support and said she was "doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances."