University of Virginia Library

World Pays Last Respects
As Ike Is Brought Home

By Rick Pearson
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Crowd At Platform Of Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Station Views Train Carrying The Body Of Dwight Eisenhower To Abilene

Coffin Is Seen Through A Train Window In The Photo At Lower Left And The Train Leaves The Station In The Picture On The Right

Thousands of students and
townspeople lined the tracks of the
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad in
Charlottesville last night to pay
silent tribute to former President
and General of the Armies Dwight
David Eisenhower.

For nearly two hours the crowd
waited patiently at the station and
on the roads near the tracks to view
the late President's funeral train.
According to a revised schedule, the
train was supposed to stop in
Charlottesville at 9:30 p.m. to
change crews after leaving Washington,
D.C., at 7:08.

A pilot train passed through to
clear the tracks at 9:35 and at 9:53
the funeral train, on its way to
Abilene, Kansas, arrived in Charlottesville.
The car containing the
casket of the late President was the
second from the front, a dark
baggage car. Military officers of
various rank and numerous Secret
Service men were visible in several
other cars. The rear car, Mr.
Eisenhower's "Santa Fe," was tightly
shuttered.

After a stop of about ten
minutes the train departed westward
at 10:02, and the silent crowd
quickly dispersed.

Mourners by the thousands,
kings from abroad as well as high
school tourists from the heartland
of America, paid homage to the
dead Former President in the
Capitol Rotunda yesterday before
his last journey home.

55,000 Mourners

Observers estimated that more
than 55,000 persons had passed the
former President's flag-draped casket
in the Rotunda by the time the
20 hours of public viewing was
ended to permit family, friends and
dignitaries to pay their private
respects.

The late-afternoon state funeral
at Washington National Cathedral
drew more than 2,000 worshippers,
including Mrs. Eisenhower and her
family, President Nixon, former
President Lyndon B. Johnson, the
hierarchy of U.S. Government, 18
chiefs of state and other foreign
dignitaries representing 76 governments.

But the actual service approved
by Mr. Eisenhower before his death
was a simple Protestant one, without
eulogies or military pageantry.

War Hero

The train bearing the body of
the hero of World War II left the
Capitol, following the service, for
Abilene, Kan., where the General is
to be buried in his famed Eisenhower
jacket in a regulation GI grey
steel casket costing $80.

Former President Johnson returned
to Washington from Texas
for the first time since President
Nixon was inaugurated Jan. 20. By
coincidence, it was one year to the
day since he startled the nation by
announcing he would not seek
re-election. He and Mrs. Johnson
paid a condolence call on Mrs.
Eisenhower that lasted half an hour
at midday.

Harry S. Truman

The only other surviving former
President, Harry S. Truman, had his
wife Bess telephone Mrs. Eisenhower
from their vacation home at
Key West, Fla., to express his
regrets that he could not attend the
funeral. The 84-year old Truman, a
military spokesman reported, sent
word he was "saddened by the fact
that they could not come to
Washington."

Before the funeral, French President
Charles deGaulle conferred
with President Nixon in the White
House living quarters for 50
minutes. A spokesman for Mr.
Nixon said it was a courtesy call,
but the two leaders doubtless
followed up on their policy discussions
during Mr. Nixon's visit to
Paris a month ago.

Supreme Court

On the national day of
mourning proclaimed by the President,
the Supreme Court met
briefly in tribute to Eisenhower and
then adjourned until this
morning. Chief Justice Earl Warren
read a statement praising him as
"one of the great men of this
century."

Congress met at noon to eulogize
Eisenhower as thousands
passed his coffin lying in state in
the Rotunda, the high ceiling dome
that separates the Capitol into the
House and Senate sides.

All trains on the entire Chesapeake
& Ohio and Baltimore &
Ohio railway system were halted
for one minute at 11 a.m. out of
respect for Mr. Eisenhower.

The Rotunda was kept open all
night for the mourners who waited
in below-freezing temperatures for
the chance to see the casket on the
black catafalque first used for
Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Student Crowd

The crowds, swelled by students
on Easter vacation, were held up at
the Rotunda door when dignitaries
appeared to lay wreaths.

South Vietnam's Nguyen Cao
Ky, wearing mourning clothes, left
red and white flowers decorated
with a red and yellow ribbon saying
simply, "The Vice President of
South Vietnam," and stood briefly
with head bowed.

King Baudoin, dressed in a
bemedalled air force uniform and a
light purple sash, placed a wreath in
the Belgium tricolor of blue, red,
and yellow and saluted the five-star
general's casket for a full minute.

The family had requested the
route of the nine-car, three-engine
train not be made public. But it was
a near impossible request for the
railroads to fulfill and details
became known.

Charlottesville Stop

The Chesapeake and Ohio railroad,
the first of four lines involved
in the operation, moved the train
through Charlottesville to Cincinnati
where the Baltimore and Ohio
takes over for a run to St. Louis.

At St. Louis the Wabash takes
the train across Missouri to Kansas
City and the Union Pacific completes
the trip to Abilene. Estimated
arrival time at Abilene was
10 this evening.

The train is expected to run at
about 50 miles-an-hour, slightly less
than normal passenger train speed
for the four railroads, but no stops
are planned except for crew
changes and servicing.

The train will not slow down at
any town along the route, as did
the funeral trains that carried Pres.
Lincoln to Springfield, Ill., and Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy last June from
New York to Washington.

The Senate selected Kansas
Sens. James B. Pearson and Robert
J. Dole as its representatives at the
burial ceremony. The House designated
Reps. Chester Mize, R-Kan.,
and O.C. Fisher, D-Tex., to represent
it. Fisher said he was chosen
because Mr. Eisenhower was born
in Texas at Denison.

David Eisenhower, who marked
his 21st birthday Monday, and his
wife, the former Julie Nixon, are
on the funeral train. President
Nixon and his family will fly to
Abilene Wednesday.

Foreign Leaders

Among the dignitaries from
foreign nations attending the funeral
were:

Australia — Prime Minister John
G. Gorton;

Belgium — King Baudoin,
Premier Gaston Eyskens;

Briton — Lord Mountbatten,
Minister of Defence Denis Healey,
and Sir Alec Douglas-Home,
former Prime Minister

Republic of China Defense of
Minister Chiang Chingkuo:

France President Charles De
Gaulle, Herve Alphand. Secretary
General of the Foreign Ministry,
and General Michel Fourquet, Chief
of Staff;

Greece King Constantine,
from Rome;

India Deputy Prime Minister
Morarji R. Desai;

Ireland External Affairs Minister
Frank Aiken;

Israel President Zalman
Shazar;

Italy Premier Mariano Rumor!

Japan Former Premier
Nobusuke Kishi:

Jordan — Crown Prince Hussein;

Korea — Premier Chung
Kwon;

The Netherlands — His Royal
Highness Prince Bernhard:

Soviet Union Marshal Vasily
I. Chuikov and Vasily V.
Kuznetsov. First Deputy Minister
of Foreign Affairs:

South Viet Nam Vice President
Nguyen Cao Ky:

West Germany Chancellor
Kurt Georg Kiesinger.