Justice Antonin Scalia appeared we begin with the Funeral Service scalia. We begin with the Funeral Service of nancy reagan. From the Ronald Reagan president ial library in california, this is about one hour. [band playing] [choir singing] [crowd noises] [applause] i am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Lives that my redeemer and he shall stand upon the earth and those whose body has been destroyed quite yet i will see god. And my eyes behold, not of a stranger. Where none of us lives to himself. And no man dies 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 lords. Blessed are the dead that have died. Even so, says the spirit, for the rest from their labors. Halt. Ready. Ready. Step. March. A reading from the book of proverbs. When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband has an unfeeling prize. She brings him good, not evil, all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands. Like merchant ships, she brings provisions from afar. She rises while it is still distributes food to her household. Out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She is with strength and history are her arms. She enjoys the successes of her dealings. At night, her lamp is not dim. She puts her hand to the distaff and her fingers the spindle. She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. She fear is not the snow for her household all of her charges are , doubly cloth. She makes covering for her bed, she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gates, as he sits with the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and stocks the merchants with belts. She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is kindly council. She watches the conduct of her foodhold and eats not her in idleness. Her children rise up and praise her her husband also extols her. , many are the women of proven words, but you have excelled them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty woman who fears the lord is to be praised. Give her a reward of her labors, and let her works praise for the city gates. The word of the lord. Amen. [crowd in unison] in the spring of 1987, president reagan and i were driven into a large hanger and toat the Ottawa Airport await the arrival of my wife and mrs. Reagan, prior to the departure ceremonies to the return to washington following their highly successful state visit to canada. President reagan i were alone except for the security detail. When their car drove in a moment later, out stepped our wives, looking like a million dollars. As they headed toward us, president reagan beamed, he threw his arm around my shoulder, and he said with a grin, you know, brian, for two irish men, we sure married up. [laughter] i mention this antidote again because it reflects a unique reagan reality. She really, always, was on his mind. We all know of rons love and admiration for nancy, and the elegance and constant manner in which he publicly expressed it. One day at the white house, after another absolutely flowing tribute by president reagan to his beloved nancy, i said, privately, you know, ron, youre going to get me and all the rest of us here in a whole lot of trouble with our lives. Wise wives. Because we cannot keep up with you. [laughter] the president chuckled and look at me with that irish twinkle, and said well, brian, that is your problem not mine. , [laughter] Brian Mulroney 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 furs and lace and perfume. I know that even the best of these would fall short of expressing how much these women mean to me and how into my life 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. [laughter] Brian Mulroney theres another woman in my life who does things i do not always get to see, but i hear about them and seek photos of her doing them. She takes an abandoned child in her arms, and the look on her face, only a madonna could match. And the look on the childs face is one of adoration, because i and i know, because i adore her as well. Over a wheelchair and the bed to touch an elderly invalid with warmth and compassion. There is another gal i love, who is a nest builder. If she were stuck for three days in a hotel room, she would manage to make it home sweet home. She moves things around, looks at it, straightens this, wondertens that, and you why it was not like that in the first place. I am also crazy about the girl who goes to the ranch with me. If we are tidying up the woods, she is a peewee powerhouse. Pushing over dead trees. She is 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 too becauseld stop i would see her in every beauty spot there is, and i couldnt stand that. Then there is a sentimental lady i love, whose eyes fell up so 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 has heard many times before. Fortunately, all of 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 peewee powerhouse you. All, withstmas you all of my love lucky me. ,[laughter] Brian Mulroney there is was the 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 yeats when talking in other circumstances to with reagans meant to us all. Today, those same golden words tumbled across cotton and down the vista of the years, as we think of nancy reunited, finally, with her beloved ronnie. Think where mans glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was that i had such friends. [ave maria] we do not want you to be unaware brothers, 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 and left until the coming of the lord, will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the lord himself, with the word of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of god will come down from heaven and the dead in christ will rise first. That we know 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 one another with these words. The word of the lord. Thanks be to god. [crowd in unison] diane sawyer thank you so much. It is an honor, and im so grateful to be included today. I have been asked to say a few words before i read a passage from the new testament for mrs. Reagan. You may want to sit down. [laughter] diane sawyer 15 years ago i interviewed her, it was long after the white house years, and i did not know her then. But our conversation was about the president and alzheimers, and how you go on when every single day, 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 who checked in with her by phone, and came to los angeles to have lunches with her. Those lunches, in which she a microscopic amounts of food, tiny little chopped salads and one chocolate chip cookie, and iced tea. And i was so terrified of that hide my rollo it sothe table and butter , she would not see it. I did not want to offend her. [laughter] but make no mistake, she would bop a journalist if she did not like a report that was done. But she never parted differences into definitions. She was way too interested in people into who you really were, what you really knew. All of us will together in this life. And so we talked about politics, and celebrities, and she told wicked stories about old hollywood. And in the days of life would throw you a curve, and you would get up and put on your lipstick, comb your hair, and kept the band playing. And i always thought of the old, desert movie morocco, that said there is no foreign legion, just for women, but there is a foreign legion for women too. Uniform, no flag, no medals, but they were brave. , she wouldh ended make her way up the hill to the house with the memories, the silences, and her happiness and the children were coming. And all this week i have been thinking about watching her head down the hall because she , would head into the bedroom and right there, i cannot remember what it was, was a pillow or a frame to needlepoint, but i know the words were clearly for president reagan. It says Something Like this, if you must believe, could you just take me with you . And i think of that again today am asked toat i 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 Fathers House are many rooms, if it were not so, i would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you, and if i go to prepare a place for you, i will come back and take you with me so that you may be where i am. You know the way to the place where i am going. Thomas said to him, lord, we dont know where you are going, so how can we know the way . 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. Thanks be to god. [crowd in unison] [pie jesurequiem] james a. Baker iii we gather here today to say goodbye to nancy davis reagan, a beautiful, smart, and gracious woman, a woman who captured the heart of a man who loved his craft, his country, and his countrymen, and most especially, loved this remarkable woman. A woman without whom Ronald Wilson reagan would never have become the 40th president of the United States, or succeeded as well as he did. The cold war that president reagan did so much to end brought them together. In 1950, the name nancy davis appeared on a list of communist sympathizers, with the hollywood yours ood blacklist blacklisters know that this was a different person, and not the young actress . She took her problem to her union boss, the president of the screen actors guild, Ronald Reagan. They met at a hollywood restaurant. The dinner would be brief, they agreed, because each had an early casting call. In fact, neither had an early casting call. [laughter] an early casting call was the standard hollywood excuse to put a quick end to unpleasant dinners. But when i opened the door, she wrote later i knew he was the , man i wanted to marry. Their meeting lasted through dinner, and then into the wee hours at a nearby club. The third age in shakespeares seven ages of man is the lover, sighing like a furnace, with a woeful ballard. Shakespeare, of course, is gently mocking young lovers, their passion always burns hot, he said, and then it feeds. Phase fades. Well the bard never met nancy or , her ronnie. As Prime Minister mulroney pointed out, they could hardly bear to be a part. When he was on a movie set, or on the road for general electric, or as a candidate, or as governor, or as president , he wrote her, every single night. When they were together, he hid love notes around the house for her to find. One christmas at pacific palisades, he wrote, whenever i treasure and enjoy, all would be without meeting if i did not meaning if i did not have view. I live in a permanent christmas because god gave me you. Nancy saved his love letters in a shopping bag in her closet. She reciprocated by slipping little notes and jellybeans in with the clothes in his suitcase. And while he was away, she said, i would drive home feeling very lonely and very sad, and i would knit him socks. She also reciprocated by dedicating her life to him. I was, i suppose, a woman of the old school, she wrote. If you wanted to make your life with a man, you took on whatever his interests were, and they became your interests, too. If Ronald Reagan had owned a shoe store, nancy would have been very happy pushing shoes and working the register. Ronald reagans interest turned in a different direction, of course, to politics and public service. Nancy, who might have preferred a more private life, became the consummate political wife and first lady. He owed much of the success of his presidency to her. She had an instinct for reading people that the president knew he lacked. Nancy, he wrote, sees the goodness in people, but she also has an extra instinct that allows her to see the flaws. Nancy was the president s eyes and ears when it came to personnel. She knew who was paddling their own canoe and who was loyal to the president. She was as tough as a marine drill sergeant, as many of us found out when things did not go well. [laughter] the president s advisers learn ed to keep her informed and seek her support. If she trusted them and agreed, her voice to theirs, but she was without a doubt, absolutely without a doubt, his closest advisor. She is the one who said, you need to do this, ronnie, you need to find a way to negotiate with gorbachev. The only time i saw her lose her composure was the day the president was shot. She was devastated and, in fact, she fell apart. Even in his condition, he did his best to give her strength. Honey, i forgot to duck, he said. [laughter] james a. Baker iii that was his way of comforting her. President reagan left the hospital convinced that god had spared him for a special purpose, and the first lady left with a fierce determination to protect him in every way that she possibly could. Ronald and nancy reagan were defined by their love for each other. They were as close to being one person as it is possible for any two people to be. When the president made his slow exit from the stage, she dedicated herself to his memory, and to his place in history. Now she, too, has exited the stage, to join her beloved ronnie in eternity. I can just imagine how st. Peter might let the president know that she had arrived. A beautiful lady is at the gate asking for you, he said, with a jar of jelly beans. [laughter] james a. Baker iii a shopping bag full of letters, and a suitcase filled with handknitted socks. We love you, nancy. We miss you, but we will see you on the other side. Tom brokaw this is a very emotional and evocative time for me. I arrived in los angeles in 1966 to join nbc news three and a half years out of south dakota, i was 26 years old, and the geniuses on the nbc news desk said to me, there is an actor running for governor of california. We dont think he is going anywhere, you are the junior guy, so you get on the bus with him. [laughter] tom brokaw it is also worth pointing out that was before the brown family put a semipermanent lease on the Governors Office in california. [laughter] tom brokaw and so i did. And it was such an instructive beginning for me as a political correspondent, because i saw the best run campaign i had ever seen up to that point, and maybe since. By the time the governor got ready to run for a second term, i knew my way around, so i went to the Los Angeles Press club where he would make his announcement, and walked into the holding room early and took a seat in the far corner. But then i realized it was kind of reserved for reagan supporters and family and friends because they began to line the walls, including jimmy and gloria stuart. Nancy came in and she was on autopilot as she made her way around that wall of friends and supporters, giving each a kiss , squeeze of the hand, and a word or two did it dawned on me that she was going to get to me. [laughter] tom brokaw i am the outlier at that point, im a reporter from the press. She got to me and she leaned back and i quickly said, mrs. Reagan, whatever it is i have, it is not catching. I can promise you that. [laughter] tom brokaw she laughed heartily, leaned over, and gave me a kiss. That was the beginning of a remarkable friendship between the first lady and a reporter. It was also a time when i began to appreciate just how much she meant to the man who became the president of the United States, not just as his wife, but as his best political advisor, as jim baker and others have pointed out. She could be, as we all saw in those photographs and videos, she could be the adoring wife in public, but behind the scenes she was a politically astute analyst and the keeper of the flame. We stayed in close touch but it was not always easy. Shortly after his inauguration as president , i made some Public Comments about his early years in which i said i thought the poor boy in narrative was somewhat overblown. After all, he had been a successful broadcaster in his 20s and then a movie star under contract before he was 30. Nancy was furious, and the word came from jim baker and others, stay clear of the white house for a while. [laughter] tom brokaw we will let you know when it is safe to go back. [laughter] tom brokaw about two months later, meredith and i were invited to a state dinner and i was told that i would have to think about what i was going to say to her when i arrived in the receiving line. Dont say anything to the president , he doesnt care, but nancy is still steaming. Meredith was nervous because i had not come up with anything to say. [laughter] tom brokaw finally, i stood before her, and i saw in her eyes that steely glaze from people who did not please her. And i spontaneously said, nancy, back to square one. She looked at me and broke out laughing and said, back to square one. The next day, a white house photograph of that moment arrived with the inscription, tom, back to square one, love, nancy. That was such a telling moment about how astute she was as a political wife, as someone who knew about