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First here tonight, our emotional day, here in the nation's capital, NBC's David Gregory is with us from the White House tonight and starts off, David, good evening.

Good evening Brian, this was an elaborate farewell for the President who was a modest man hailed today for his character and leadership during crisis. On a crisp windswept Washington morning, the casket carrying the 38th president, the common man from Michigan was escorted from the Capitol. The emotion evident on the faces of Gerald Ford's children and his widow Betty. The cortege moves swiftly through the still of the city, slowing poignantly outside the White House.

Gathered at the National Cathedral Washington's League, former presidents, first ladies, journalists and Ford's friends who served at the highest levels of government. President Bush escorted Mrs. Ford, the strain of the date plain to see.

To know Gerald was to know a normal rough old painting coming to life. And once you look the figure, quick to smile, frequently with his pipe in his mouth.

And so when President Nixon needed to replace a vice president who had resigned in scandal, he actually turned to a man whose name was a synonym for integrity. Gerald Ford, and eight months later when he was elevated to the presidency, it was because America needed him, not because he needed the office.

Ford's controversial partner Richard Nixon was hailed today as a measure of his character.

Gerald Ford, you showed mercy when others demanded vengeance.

Gerald Ford brought to the political arena no demons, no hidden agenda, no Hitlerist or acts of vengeance .

At one point while the choir sang, Mrs. Ford to be seen saying to daughter Susan, "it was beautiful". By noon, a final escort to Washington. At Andrews Air Force Base, Ford's casket was loaded on the presidential aircraft. Arriving in Grand Rapids, Michigan, President Ford was home. A President, a family man and a football player heard the Michigan fight song one last time. The procession ended at the Ford Presidential Museum. For his family, the last solemn steps to this president's final resting place on a day of farewell.

There will be an overnight viewing of President Ford's body in Michigan and then the burial there tomorrow afternoon. Brian.

David Gregory at the White House for us tonight, Thank you for that, David.