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Nancy Reagan's Funeral. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired March 11, 2016 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00] BILL: Not a very ideological person. She was a pragmatist. And she had many friends who were liberals. And she moved him especially with the Gorbachevs and making some kind of settlement with the Soviet Union. And I think she was a big influence in that way.
But in all the hours we spent together, she rarely discussed politics with me. And I was struck by that. Her relationship with her kids was - is probably, I think, best discussed on another occasion. It didn't always bring her or them a lot of joy. But she was a deeply sensitive person.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let me jump in because I think this picture, David - thank you, Bill.
David Gergen, could you just comment as we're looking at this row. Caroline Kennedy on down. This picture.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's a remarkable set of people who have shown up. You go back through. You have the Robs (ph) and there. You know, Lyndon Johnson's daughter is there. And it sort of goes up through history. Rosalynn Carter. I think it's remarkable that people from both sides - so many people from both sides of the aisle are there. (INAUDIBLE) just pointed out, the one person who is not there is Barbara Bush.
BALDWIN: Barbara Bush is not.
GERGEN: Yes, the Bushs, George W. is there with his wife Laura, but -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan famously had a difficult relationship in the White House. And so, you know, the Bushs were rarely invited up to the residence when they were the vice president. And so there might be - I don't know if she - the reasons for her not being there. But it's interesting to note that she's not there amid all these other first ladies.
GERGEN: She may - there may have been other reasons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
GERGEN: Yes, in fairness to her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.
GERGEN: Yes. BALDWIN: Again, all of these - about 1,000 people in this room at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Nancy Reagan's funeral about to begin. Again, if you're just joining us, you know, this is a funeral she had initially discussed with her husband and then, even in the last six to eight months or so, she had really gone through every single detail, beginning with, as you're about to hear, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," selecting which verse in the Bible, and then, of course, the letter from her husband to her many years ago. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; whom I shall
see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.
For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For if we live, we live unto the Lord. and if we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; Even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors.
[14:05:27] SINGING: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, His truth is marching on.
I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps. They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps. I can read his righteous sentence by
the dim and flaring lamps. His day is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, His truth is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea. With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free. While God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, His truth is marching on.
Marching on. Marching on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lord be with you. CROWD: And also with you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us pray.
O, God whose mercies cannot be numbered, accept our prayers on behalf of thy servant Nancy and grant her an entrance into the land of light and joy in the fellowship of thy saints, through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reignth with thee in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, amen.
CROWD: Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A reading from the book of Proverbs.
When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good and not evil all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands. Like merchant ships, she secures her provisions from afar. She rises while it is still night and distributes food to her household. She picks out a field to purchase out of her earnings. She plants a vineyard. She is girt about with strength and sturdy are her arms. She enjoys the successes of her dealings. At night, her lamp is undimmed. She puts her hand to the disstaff and her fingers ply the spindle. She reaches out her hands to the poor and extends her arms to the needy. She fears not the snow for her household. All her charges are doubly clothed. She makes her own coverlets. Fine linen and purple are her clothing. Her husband is prominent at the city gates as he sits with the elders of the land. She makes garments and sells them and stocks the merchants with belt (ph). She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs at the days to come. She opens her mouth in wisdom and on her tongue is kindly counsel. She watches the conduct of her household and eat nots her food in idleness. Her children rise up and praise her. Her husband, too, extolls her. Many are the women of proven worth, but you have excelled them all. Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting. The woman who fears the Lord is to praised. Give her a reward of her labors and let her works praise her at the city gates, the word of the Lord.
[14:10:51] CROWD: Thanks be to God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the spring of 1987, President Reagan and I were driven into a large hangar at the Ottawa Airport to await the arrival of Mrs. Reagan and my wife, Mila (ph) prior to departure ceremonies for their return to Washington following their highly successful state visit to Canada. President Reagan and I were alone, except for the security details. When their car drove in a moment later, out stepped Nancy and Mila looking like a million bucks. And as they headed towards us, President Reagan beamed. He threw his arm around my shoulder and he said with a grin, you know, Brian, for two Irishmen, we sure married up.
I mention this anecdote again because it reflects a unique Reagan reality. She really always was on his mind. We all know of Ron's great love and admiration for Nancy and the elegant and constant manner in which he publicly expressed it. One day at the White House, after another glowing - absolutely glowing
tribute by President Reagan to his beloved Nancy, I said privately, you know, Ron, you're going to get me and all the rest of us here in a whole lot of trouble with our wives because we can't keep up with you. And the president chuckled and looked at me with that Irish twinkle in his eye and said, well, Brian, that's your problem, not mine.
To illustrate this absolutely unique partnership and relationship, let me share with you today a letter he wrote to Nancy on their first Christmas together in the White House. On December 25, 1981.
Dear Mrs. R., there are several much beloved women in my life and on Christmas I should be giving them gold and precious stones and perfume and furs and lace. I know that even the best of these would fall short of expressing how much these several women mean to me and how empty my life would be without them. There is, of course, my first lady. She brings so much grace and charm to whatever she does that even stuffy, formal functions sparkle and turn into fun times. Everything is done with class. All I have to do is wash up and show up.
There's another woman in my life who does things I don't always get to see, but I hear about them and sometimes see photos of her doing them. She takes an abandoned child in her arms on a hospital visit. The look on her face only the Madonna could match. The look on the child's face is one of adoration. And I know, because I adore her too. She bends over a wheelchair or bed to touch an elderly invalid with tenderness and compassion, just as she fills my entire life with warmth and love.
[14:15:04] There's another gal I love who is a nest builder. If she were stuck for three days in a hotel room, she'd manage to make it home sweet home. She moves things around, looks at it, straightens this, straightens that, and you wonder why it wasn't like that in the first place.
I'm also crazy about the girl who goes to the ranch with me. If we're tidying up the woods, she's a pee wee powerhouse at pushing over dead trees. She's a wonderful person to sit by the fire with, or to ride with, or just to be with when the sun goes down and the stars come out. If ever she stopped going to the ranch, I'd stop too, because I'd see her in every beauty spot there is and I couldn't stand that.
Then there is a sentimental lady I love whose eyes fill up so easily. On the other hand, she loves to laugh and her laugh is like tinkling bells. I hear those bells. And I feel good all over. Even if I tell a joke she's heard many, many times before.
Fortunately, all these women in my life are you. Fortunately for me that is, for there could be no life for me without you. Browning asked, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. For me, there is no way to count. I love the whole gang of you. Mommy, first lady, the sentimental you, the fun you and the pee wee powerhouse you. Merry Christmas you all. With all my love, lucky me.
Theirs was a love story for the ages. As first couple, Ron and Nancy Reagan represented America with great distinction. They had a magnificent sense of occasion. They had style. And they had grace. And they had class.
Some of you may have heard my reference to lines from William Butler Yates when talking in other circumstances of what the Reagans meant to us all. Today, those same golden words tumble across continents and down the vista of the years as we think of Nancy reunited finally with her beloved Ronnie. Yates wrote, think where man's glory most begins and ends and say, my glory was that I had such friends.
(SINGING - AVE MARIA)
[14:21:48] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not want you to unaware, brother, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself, with the Word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God will come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, console on another with these words. The word of the Lord.
CROWD: Thanks be to God.
DIANE SAWYER: Thank you so much. It's an honor. And I am so grateful to be included today. And I've been asked to say just a few words before I read a passage from the New Testament for Mrs. Reagan, so you may want to sit down.
Fifteen years ago I interviewed her. It was long after the White House years. And I didn't really know her then. But our conversation was about the president and Alzheimer's, and how you go on when every single day, as someone said, the size of the love is the size of the loss. And when the interview was over, we kept talking. And I think I joined so many of you here in this room who checked in with her by phone and came to Los Angeles to have the lunches with her. Those lunches in which she ate microscopic amounts of food, tiny little chopped salads and one chocolate chip cookie and the iced tea. And I was so terrified of that, that I used to hide my roll under the table and butter it so she couldn't see it. I didn't want to offend her.
But make no mistake, she would bop journalists, and I mean bop any journalist in this room, and we know this, if she didn't like a report you had done. But unlike so many people these days, she never seemed to harden differences into definitions. She was way too interested in people and who you really were and what you really knew, all of us woven together in this life. And so we talked about politics and celebrities and she told very wicked stories about old Hollywood and the days when life would throw you a curve and you got up and you put on your lipstick and you combed your hair and you kept the band playing. [14:25:07] And I always thought of that old desert movie, "Morocco,"
describing in a way a generation of women. It says, there is no foreign legion just for women, but there is a foreign legion for women too. They have no uniform, no flag, no medals when they are brave.
And as the lunch would end, she would make her way up the hill to the house with the memories and the silences and her happiness when the children were coming. And all this week I've been thinking about watching her head down the hall because she would head into the bedroom and right there I can't remember exactly what it was, was it a pillow or a framed needle point, but I know the words were clearly from President Reagan, and it said something like this, if you must leave, could you just take me with you. And I think of that again today as I read what I've been asked to read, this passage from the Gospel of John.
Jesus said, do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.
You know the way to the place where I am going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? And Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.
For Nancy, the word of the Lord.
CROWD: Thanks be to God.
(SINGING)
