Honored in Vigil at Metropolitan Baptist Church
WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - Hundreds of mourners waited in line under a cold drizzle Tuesday to pay their respects to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown who died in a plane crash in Croatia last week. President Bill Clinton will attend his funeral at the National Cathedral today, but many of his friends celebrated his life into the night Tuesday.
For five hours, his family and friends, cabinet members and government workers, ambassadors and neighbors, preachers and politicians laughed at their memories of the globe-trotting confidante of Clinton's. "This is Ron's night," civil rights activist Jesse Jackson told some 1,500 people at the Metropolitan Baptist church. As the midnight hour came and went, after scores of anecdotes had been told and private jokes shared, Jackson, the last of more than 30 speakers, joked: "We have been here a long time tonight. This was Ron Brown's fault. If we had been tracking a low-life we all wouldn't have showed up in the first place."
U.S. ambassador to France Pamela Harriman fondly recalled a Sunday morning stroll through the quiet streets of Paris, showing Brown the sights; Sen. Edward Kennedy and other Democratic Party stalwarts told tales of Brown's campaign days; an old friend from his Harlem boyhood recalled how Brown would gleefully hog the basketball in Saturday morning games; a gospel-singing choir sang hymns, and mayors and governors he helped elect sang his praises. Jackson called Brown "a dream-makers, a bridge builder, a reconciler." His closed flag-draped casket remained in the lobby of the Commerce Department building surrounded by six guards for a public viewing that lasted through the night.
Brown, who died along with 34 others while on a mission to the former Yugoslavia, will be buried at Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia Wednesday. The Commerce Department will be closed for a day of mourning. Mourners who waited in a line that wrapped around the corner of the building the size of a city block spoke of Brown as a man they admired and a role model for African Americans.
"I just felt like I needed to come and pay my respects. He was a very important man, a good role model," said Wanda Thomas of Maryland, who was on her lunch break. "I had a lot of respect for him. I considered him a role model for a lot of African Americans," said David Crichlow, an attorney waiting in the line for the viewing.
Brown's casket was brought to the department in a ceremony attended by Vice President Al Gore and Brown's family members. Gore kept his arm around Brown's wife Alma as the casket was carried by pallbearers on a red carpet rolled out from the entrance to the building. The family had a private viewing, followed by another private viewing for Brown's personal staff.
Brown is the only Cabinet secretary who died in office to be placed on the funeral platform that was used to bear the coffin of Abraham Lincoln, the Commerce Department said. The platform, known as a catafalque, was originally constructed in April 1865 for Lincoln's coffin. The coffins of President John Kennedy, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren also rested on it.
Brown was on a mission to study reconstruction projects in the former Yugoslavia when the Air Force plane crashed in heavy rain and fog on its approach to Dubrovnik airport. Also killed in the crash were 12 U.S. businessmen, 12 U.S. government officials, a European development bank official, a New York Times reporter, six crew members and a Croatian interpreter and photographer.
Photos of the other Commerce Department officials killed in the crash were set up on a table near Brown's casket, along with condolence books for signing. Flower memorials were in the corners of the lobby.
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