Scott Olson/Getty Images(HOUSTON) — Barbara Bush will be laid to rest in Texas on Saturday as mourners, including dignitaries from across the nation and around the world, gather to remember the former first lady’s life and legacy.
More than 1,500 guests, including former presidents and first ladies, are expected to fill St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston on Saturday morning for the funeral service. Barbara Bush, who died on Tuesday at the age of 92, had requested in her last wishes a modest funeral at the Gothic-style cathedral, where she and her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, were devoted members for decades.
Barbara Bush’s casket on Friday arrived at St. Martin’s, the nation’s largest Episcopal church, where she lay in repose as the public was invited to pay respects from noon to midnight, according to the Geo. H. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home in Houston.
The Rev. Russell Levenson Jr. and the Rev. Dr. Peter Cheney will be co-officiants of Saturday’s service, which is set to begin at 11 a.m. ET. Barbara Bush’s son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, will deliver a eulogy along with her longtime friend, Susan Baker, and historian Jon Meacham, according to a statement from the Bush family.
First lady Melania Trump will attend the funeral service Saturday “on behalf of the first family,” White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement. “To avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service, President Trump will not attend.”
Following the service, a funeral procession will bring Barbara Bush’s casket to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum near Texas A&M University in College Station for a private service, where she will be buried in a family plot beside her daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at the age of 3 in 1953. The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets are expected to line Barbara Bush Avenue outside the library to pay tribute to the former first lady.
Barbara Bush served as first lady from 1989 to 1993. She died shortly after deciding to forgo further medical treatments for her failing health.
Former President George H.W. Bush is “broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara, his wife of 73 years,” according to Jean Becker, chief of staff at the 93-year-old former president’s office.
“He held her hand all day today and was at her side when she left this good earth,” Becker said in a statement.
Their eldest child, former President George W. Bush, described his mother as a “fabulous first lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions.”
“To us, she was so much more,” he said in a statement after her death. “Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end. I’m a lucky man that Barbara Bush was my mother. Our family will miss her dearly.”
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