Reagan's coffin carried to library for public viewing

The body of former US President Ronald Reagan was carried Monday morning in a motorcade to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, northern Los Angeles, marking the start of a five-day national mourning.

The motorcade carrying the flag-draped coffin left the Gates Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy funeral home in Santa Monica in western Los Angeles as hundreds of onlookers gathered outside applauded.

Riding in the motorcade are former first lady Nancy Reagan, thecouple's two children -- Ronald Prescott Reagan and Patti Davis --and Michael Reagan, the adopted son of Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman.

An apparently-moved Nancy and other Reagan family members briefly gathered around Reagan's coffin in the main lobby of the library, in a private ceremony to bid farewell to Reagan.

The public viewing will begin Monday noon and continue through Tuesday evening before the Reagan's hearse will be flied to Washington D.C. for a public viewing and a state funeral Friday.

Monday marked the start of five-day mourning for Reagan, the 40th US president from 1981 to 1989. Reagan, who battled Alzheimer' s disease for a decade, died from pneumonia Saturday at his Bel-Air home. He was 93.

Reagan's chief of staff Joanne Drake told a news conference Sunday that the Reagan family received thousands of condolence messages and is "deeply touched by the outpouring of sympathy fromacross the country and around the world."

On Wednesday morning, Nancy Reagan and her family are expected to return to the library for a ceremony before Reagan's remains will depart for the capital.

Reagan's body will lie in state in the rotunda of the US Capitol for the public to pay their respects until late Thursday.

The state funeral, with many current and former world leaders expected to attend, is set to begin Friday morning in the Washington National Cathedral. President George W. Bush on Sunday declared next Friday a national day of mourning.

Following the funeral, Reagan's body will be flown back to California Friday to be buried in the Reagan library in a private interment service.

Source: Xinhua