Day of mourning includes procession, televised services
President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, 50 senators, and a host of other dignitaries will join Rhode Islanders in memorializing Sen. John H. Chafee.
By KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- With a cortege led through downtown streets by horse-drawn carriage, and a private service in a Gothic Revival church, Rhode Islanders, family and friends, and Washington dignitaries will bid farewell today to John Hubbard Chafee, senator, former governor, and former U.S. Navy secretary.
President Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and other Washington dignitaries riding with them aboard Air Force One are to arrive at T.F. Green Airport and be whisked by motorcade to the historic Grace Church in Providence before the funeral begins at 11 a.m.
Among those attending the traditional Episcopalian memorial service will be at least 50 sitting senators, including Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. and Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner, former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird, Navy Secretary Richard J. Danzig, Army Secretary Louis Caldera, and Gen. James L. Jonesk, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Also attending will be former Rhode Island Govs. J. Joseph Garrahy, Bruce G. Sundlun and Philip W. Noel, all members of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, former Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole of Kansas, former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee, and state representatives from 39 cities and towns.
The public will be able to view the cortege as it passes along the processional route that wends nearly one mile from the Smith Street side of the State House, along Kennedy Plaza, and over to Grace Church.
The procession begins at 10 a.m.
Due to high security, the public will not be allowed access to the area immediately surrounding the church. The service is invitation-only.
A live broadcast will be shown on large screens at the Rhode Island Convention Center that will be open to the public; all three local television stations will carry the service.
``We are encouraging people to go to the Convention Center,'' said Stephen Hourahan, Chafee's former office manager. ``We've made provisions for programs, there will be wonderful screens for them to see the service, and people in there will be able to see the cortege passing.''
Grace Church was chosen because the Chafee family has worshiped there ``for several generations,'' a spokeswoman said yesterday.
One room within the church is dedicated to the senator's grandparents: ``In loving memory of Mary Dexter Chafee (1860-1934), Zechariah Chafee (1859-1943),'' with the inscription, ``Bear ye one another's burdens.''
The church's bells have ``marked the ends of wars, tolled for the deaths of presidents, governors and local leaders'' since 1861, according to a pamphlet on the church's history. This morning they will toll once again, for Chafee.
``They will be rung the number of years that he lived,'' said the spokeswoman -- 77 tolls of the bell.
IN DOWNTOWN Providence yesterday, preparations for the funeral procession and memorial were under way.
Kennedy Plaza buzzed with the hum of leaf-blowers as the park was swept clear.
By mid-afternoon, a rehearsal was in progress at Grace Church, watched by camera crews and people in the tiny park at Westminster and Mathewson Streets.
Pall-bearers -- U.S. Marines in civilian clothes -- stiffly held an invisible casket in their arms as they slowly marched down the stone steps of the 153-year-old church.
Former Republican Sen. John C. Danforth, an Episcopal priest who will lead this morning's ceremony, arrived from St. Louis, Mo., in a dark pinstriped suit, and informally inspected the church.
As the sun lowered in the sky, the soprano voices of the Grace Church Boys' Choir could be heard in rehearsal, emanating from within the buttressed walls of the brownstone building.
LAST EVENING, the Providence police posted emergency no-parking signs at 6 p.m. along the processional route, effective at 5 this morning.
``There will be no parking along either side of the street,'' said Police Capt. John Glancy. People ``can line the route -- there's no problem with that at all,'' he added.
The area bounded by Washington, Empire, Weybosset and Union Streets surrounding Grace Church will be barricaded and closed to nearly all vehicle and foot traffic by 8 a.m..
``Buses will be allowed to enter that route, and any business owners will be allowed to go to their businesses,'' said Glancy. ``But for general traffic, it will be closed.''
Guests invited to the memorial will have to clear a Secret Service checkpoint outside, at Snow and Westminster Streets, beginning at 9 a.m.
Grace Church normally seats 740 on its blue-velveted pews; folding chairs will bring that number to 800.
In the unlikely event that seats can be made available to the general public, individuals reporting to the Snow/Westminster check-in will be allowed in on ``a first-come, first-serve basis,'' according to the senator's staff.
Most parking lots will remain open downtown.
THE SENATOR'S casket will be drawn by an antique carriage lent by Chepachet Farm and Carriage Works.
``We are extremely honored'' to be able to lend the carriage, said Jody Esposito, who co-owns the farm with her husband, Neil Esposito.
The carriage has wooden-spoked wheels and antique lamps, she said, and will be used without its cover. The two horses, also lent by the Espositos, are two-ton geldings that are a cross between European Belgians and Percherons, she said. ``They will be wearing patent-leather harnesses with chrome studs.''
Walking behind the casket and carriage will be the senator's five grown children. Other family members will ride in an eight-car procession.
Police cars and fire department apparatus from all 39 cities and towns, as well as Boy Scouts from across the state, will line the route.
Seating for 1,000 will be available inside the Convention Center ballroom for members of the public, for viewing the memorial service on an 8-by-10-foot screen; other smaller screens will be hung throughout the center. The Convention Center will offer free validated parking for those attending.
After the service, President and Mrs. Clinton will return to the airport by motorcade. The state police will briefly blockade that route to public travel, which remains undisclosed for security reasons.
After the service, Sen. Chafee's remains will be buried in a private ceremony for family members only.
With reports from staff writer John E. Mulligan
Add on this topic
Copyright © 1999 The Providence Journal Company
Produced by www.projo.com