Thousands of people have begun quietly paying their respects to the late U.S. President Gerald Ford at the Capitol Building in Washington.
Mr. Ford's flag-draped coffin is in display in the Capitol Rotunda today and Monday, where the public can walk past it and remember the man who was appointed president following the Watergate scandal of 1974.
There will be a memorial service for Mr. Ford in Washington on Tuesday, and he will be buried in his hometown of Grand Rapids, in the northern state of Michigan on Wednesday.
At his state funeral on Saturday, Mr. Ford's former chief of staff, Vice President Dick Cheney, hailed Mr. Ford as a steady leader who helped the nation recover from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
Mr. Ford - the 38th president of the United States - died Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 93.
Mr. Ford is the only American to have served as both president and vice president without being elected to either office. He was minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives before President Richard Nixon appointed him vice president in 1973, to replace then-Vice President Spiro Agnew, who resigned in scandal. Mr. Ford rose to the nation's top office when Mr. Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment in 1974.
Mr. Ford - who spent nearly 26 years in the House of Representatives - served two-and a-half years as president. Some historians have said he helped the nation recover from the trauma of the Vietnam War and the Watergate political scandal that forced Mr. Nixon from office.
Mr. Ford's pardon of Mr. Nixon of any crimes he may have committed during Watergate earned President Ford the wrath of Mr. Nixon's opponents. Some historians say it likely cost Mr. Ford the election in 1976 when he lost a close race to Jimmy Carter.
Mr. Ford's flag-draped coffin is in display in the Capitol Rotunda today and Monday, where the public can walk past it and remember the man who was appointed president following the Watergate scandal of 1974.
There will be a memorial service for Mr. Ford in Washington on Tuesday, and he will be buried in his hometown of Grand Rapids, in the northern state of Michigan on Wednesday.
At his state funeral on Saturday, Mr. Ford's former chief of staff, Vice President Dick Cheney, hailed Mr. Ford as a steady leader who helped the nation recover from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
Mr. Ford - the 38th president of the United States - died Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 93.
Mr. Ford is the only American to have served as both president and vice president without being elected to either office. He was minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives before President Richard Nixon appointed him vice president in 1973, to replace then-Vice President Spiro Agnew, who resigned in scandal. Mr. Ford rose to the nation's top office when Mr. Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment in 1974.
Mr. Ford - who spent nearly 26 years in the House of Representatives - served two-and a-half years as president. Some historians have said he helped the nation recover from the trauma of the Vietnam War and the Watergate political scandal that forced Mr. Nixon from office.
Mr. Ford's pardon of Mr. Nixon of any crimes he may have committed during Watergate earned President Ford the wrath of Mr. Nixon's opponents. Some historians say it likely cost Mr. Ford the election in 1976 when he lost a close race to Jimmy Carter.