Reagan honored in state funeral

President George W. Bush eulogized former president Ronald Reagan as "a great American story" on Friday while addressing a state funeral which climaxed in five days of national mourning.

"We lost Ronald Reagan only days ago, but we have missed him for a long time. We have missed his kindly presence, that reassuring voice, and the happy ending we had wished for him," Bush said in the service held in Washington's National Cathedral.

"It has been 10 years since he said his own farewell, yet it isstill very sad and hard to let him go. Ronald Reagan belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when he belonged to us," Bush added, referring to Reagan's decision 10 years ago to disappear from public life after learning that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The disease is a chronic and degenerative brain disorder that leads to mental disorientation and physical decline.

"When the sun sets tonight off the coast of California and we lay to rest our 40th president, a great American story will close," Bush said.

The state funeral, the first of its kind to a former president in 31 years, came after five days of national mourning for Reagan, who died on Saturday last week at his home in California.

Reagan honored in state funeral

Reagan's flag-covered casket was first moved to the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California, on Monday for thepublic to pay respects.

After a cross-country journal, the casket arrived in Washington D.C. on Wednesday and was placed in state in the Rotunda of the Capital Hill for continued public reviewing.

Shortly before the state funeral, the casket was transferred from the Capital Hill to the National Cathedral in western Washington following a 21-gun salute.

The body of the former US president will be flown back to California after the state funeral for a sunset burial at the presidential library in Simi Valley.

Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. Following his graduation from Eureka (Ill.) College in 1932, he worked for 5 years as a sports announcer in Des Moines, Louisiana.

Reagan began a successful career as a film actor in 1937, and starred in numerous movies, and later television, until the 1960s.He was a captain in the Army Air Force during World War II and served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952, and in 1959.

Once a liberal Democrat, Reagan became active in Republican politics during the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater.He was elected governor of California in 1966, and reelected in 1970.

Following his retirement as governor, Reagan became the leadingspokesman for the conservative wing of the Republican Party, and made a strong bid for the party's 1976 presidential nomination. In1980, he gained the Republican nomination and won a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter. He was easily reelected in 1984.

Reagan, the oldest man ever elected President in the US history, began his retirement life as from 1989. He died on June 5 at the age of 93 as the longest-surviving US president.