WASHINGTON The nation bid farewell Tuesday to Gerald Rudolph Ford in a state funeral that mixed the pomp of an official service with the laughter of friends — including Rep. Ralph Regula — who remembered the 38th president as an ordinary man who assumed power in most extraordinary times and calmed a troubled nation.

The funeral in the majestic National Cathedral was the next-to-last phase of the nationwide mourning that began when Ford, the oldest surviving president in history, died one week earlier at age 93 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. This tear-filled day ended amid longtime friends with Ford’s sorrowful return to his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., where he will be buried today.

But even for the former president’s grieving widow, Betty Ford, and the large Ford clan, laughter battled with those tears for pre-eminence at Tuesday’s service. In life, Ford had shunned pretensions. And his hand-picked eulogists had no room for them in their heartfelt comments from the pulpit.

REGULA PRAISES EULOGIES

Regula, R-Bethlehem Township, who traveled back to Washington early to attend the funeral, said the eulogies made the service.

Each eulogist “emphasized a different facet of Jerry’s personality,” said Regula, who called the funeral “very, very well done.”

Regula, first elected to Congress in 1972, served briefly with Ford in the House before he assumed the presidency in August 1974.

President Bush even drew a laugh and a smile from the former first lady when he recalled that Ford’s “idea of a honeymoon was driving to Ann Arbor with his bride so they could attend a brunch before the Michigan-Northwestern” football game.

The 43rd president hailed the 38th for the grace he brought to the White House when he was thrust into the Oval Office on Aug. 9, 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency and Ford became the only president in history never to have been elected to either the presidency or the vice presidency.

“President Ford assumed office at a terrible time in our nation’s history,” Bush recalled. “Amid all the turmoil, Gerald Ford was a rock of stability. And when he put his hand on the family Bible to take the presidential oath of office, he brought grace to a moment of great doubt.”

WIND PLAYS HAVOC

Outside the cathedral, Washington was enjoying a remarkably mild January day with temperatures reaching into the 50s. But a brisk wind made it seem much colder, at times impelling Ford’s four children and his grandchildren to huddle around Betty Ford to shield her from the elements.

The children first had been introduced to the nation as teenagers or just out of their teens. But now they are grown — Michael, 56; John, 54; Steven, 50; and Susan Ford Bales, 49. John, better known as “Jack,” is a longtime resident of San Diego County, living in Rancho Santa Fe.

The wind was strong enough to whisk the hats off many of the members of the armed forces participating in the ceremonies. But it was not enough to keep many Americans away from the somber funeral procession as the black hearse and its attending limousines worked their way from the Capitol, where the body had lain in state since Saturday, past the White House and the vice presidential residence, finally stopping at the Cathedral perched atop the highest hill in Washington.

Inside were gathered all the top officials of the three branches of government — from both today and from three decades ago — as well as the diplomatic corps and the many friends Ford had accumulated during his long service as congressman, vice president and president.

ALL THE PRESIDENTS

Chief Justice John Roberts mingled with Vice President Dick Cheney, while former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Henry Kissinger talked. Seated together were the current president and first lady, Laura Bush; the three living former presidents, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush; and former first ladies Nancy Reagan, Rosalyn Carter and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The chatting stopped and the mood turned somber when the current president slowly escorted the now-frail Betty Ford down the long aisle of the historic cathedral, the sixth largest in the world. Under construction since 1907, the cathedral’s 10-story nave and west rose window were not completed until 1976, and were dedicated by then-President Ford.

The most emotional remembrance was offered by Bush’s father, the 41st president. George H.W. Bush likened the fallen Ford to a “Norman Rockwell painting come to life.” He painted a fond portrait of Ford as “an avuncular figure quick to smile, frequently with his pipe in his mouth.”

He also hearkened back to the Nixon scandals, stating that “Jerry Ford’s decency was the ideal remedy for the deception of Watergate.”

Like others, Bush joked about Ford’s reputation for a sometimes-erratic golf game, quoting the former president as once saying, “I know I’m playing better golf because I’m hitting fewer spectators.”

WARREN COMMISSION MEMBER

Bush also struck a more serious note in recalling a role many have forgotten Ford played: He was the last living member of the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Bush said that Ford’s credibility gives that commission “the final definitive say on this tragic matter ... because Jerry Ford put his name on it and Jerry Ford’s word was always good.”

Tom Brokaw, who covered the Ford White House for NBC News, was invited to deliver a eulogy in a sign of Ford’s affection for reporters — a trait rarely found in the Oval Office. Brokaw drew one of the biggest laughs of the service when he reached back 30 years for an incident in San Diego that demonstrated the president’s ability to laugh at himself.

Brokaw recalled how delighted Ford had been during that 1976 campaign event when he spotted a man in a chicken suit. The man was Ted Giannoulas, and he had donned the suit as a promotion for radio station KGB.

He later became famous as the San Diego Chicken. But his earliest fame came when New York Times reporter Jim Naughton — with the help of Cheney, who was then Ford’s chief of staff — bought the top of the chicken costume and wore it later to a campaign press conference. The stunt delighted Ford so much he had the costume placed in his presidential library in Grand Rapids.

“The chicken head was a bigger story than the president, and no one was more pleased than the man that we honor here today ... ,” said Brokaw.

KISSINGER SPEAKS

Brokaw also hailed Ford for his simplicity and basic values. “Gerald Ford brought to the political arena no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit-list or acts of vengeance. He knew who he was, and he didn’t require consultants or gurus to change him,” he said, drawing a clear contrast with Nixon.

When Kissinger took to the pulpit, his remembrances were less personal. Instead, he talked of Ford’s legacy, praising the steps he took to conclude the Vietnam War, deal with the Soviet Union, ease Middle East tensions and reassure allies left anxious by Watergate.

“Historians will debate for a long time over which president contributed most to victory in the Cold War,” said Kissinger. “Few will dispute that the Cold War could not have been won had not Gerald Ford emerged at a tragic period to restore equilibrium to America and confidence to its international role.”

Ford will not be buried until after another memorial service to be held in the hometown he so loved, Grand Rapids, Mich. And the difference in tone was evident as soon as the presidential jet landed at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport there.

While in Washington, there had been beautiful music provided by opera singer Denyce Graves, the U.S. Marine Band and the cathedral choirs. In Grand Rapids, there was the University of Michigan band playing the school’s fight song, “Hail to the Victors,” in honor of an alumnus and Wolverine football star.