Saturday, June 05, 2004

STATE FUNERAL: Reagan Dies, City Prepares to Remember Former President

Washington is preparing this evening for a state funeral for former President Ronald Reagan. The 40th president of the United States died a few minutes after 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon at his Bel Air, Calif., home after battling Alzheimer's disease for the past decade.

Though more information as to the details of the state funeral are supposed to be released Sunday, Reagan's body will lie in state in the Capitol's Rotunda after a procession east on Constitution Avenue from the foot of the Ellipse. The National Cathedral is supposed to be the scene of a large funeral service as well. All this is set for early this coming week.

One local landmark associated with Reagan is the corner of Florida Avenue and T Street in Northwest, where the president was shot in 1981 by a deranged assassin obsessed with Jodie Foster. The corner sits at the lower driveway for the Washington Hilton, where the president had been earlier. The other landmark from the assassination was torn down last year. The old George Washington University hospital at Washington Circle, where Reagan was taken and recovered, was demolished after GWU's new Reagan hospital opened across the street.

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