George H.W. Bush has finally been laid to rest next to his wife Barbara and their daughter Robin

George H.W. Bush has finally been laid to rest next to his beloved wife, Barbara, and their daughter, Robin, at Texas A&M University after a private, graveside service for his family.

Thursday evening’s ceremony concludes days of funeral activities honoring the 41st president.

After lying in state at the US Capitol and a funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral, Bush had a funeral at the Houston church where his family worshiped for more than 50 years. 

His remains then rode on a special funeral train to College Station, where he was buried at his presidential library at Texas A&M University. 

Prior to the closed service, about 2,100 cadets in dress uniforms lined the road to the graveside and saluted as the motorcade passed. 

Earlier on Thursday, thousands of cheering and waving Texans lined the route of the special funeral train traveling 70 miles from Houston.

Bush’s family, watched somberly as a military honor guard carried his casket off the train. His flag-draped casket was wrapped with a plastic cover due to the rainy conditions.

On Thursday morning, an emotional service at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston was held.

His body was then transported via the presidential train to the presidential library where he was laid to rest at the private ceremony.

Bush’s grandsons were honorary pallbearers and his granddaughters read scripture in a service bursting with faith and family – less about America’s last war-hero president than a gracious, devout patriarch.

About 1,200 invited guests included members of the 41st president’s family, Houston athletes and civic leaders who knew him as a service-minded American who invested more than four decades in merging his family’s values with America’s.

He was ‘the most gracious, most decent, most humble man I will ever know,’ said George P. Bush, the late president’s grandson who as the Texas land commissioner is the last current family member with a political future.

Recalling vacations with ‘Gamps,’ and his inspiring letters, he joked about games of horseshoes the former president would play ‘among family, Secret Service or any willing head of state’.

Bush was buried alongside Barbara and their daughter Robin (pictured on her dad’s shoulders), who died at the age of three from leukemia 

Bush’s family, watched somberly as a military honor guard carried his casket off the train. His flag-draped casket was wrapped with a plastic cover due to the rainy conditions 

Thursday evening’s ceremony concludes days of funeral activities honoring the 41st president

After lying in state at the US Capitol and a funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral, Bush had a funeral at the Houston church where his family worshiped for more than 50 years

The flag-draped casket is carried by a joint services military honor guard followed by family members at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum

George W and his wife Laura, are seen leading their mourning family as they head to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum

‘Power outage!’ George H.W. Bush would trash-talk if any metal shoe failed to reach the post. Overshooting the mark would draw a snarky ‘Woodrow Wilson!’ – a chuckle at the president who famously sought a law to suppress disloyalty and absolute authority to censor the press in wartime.

And in grandfatherly playfulness, the late president often ‘challenged all of the grandkids to the coveted “First to Sleep” award,’ George P. said. 

A more elderly Bush confidant, 88-year-old James Baker, said of the late president that ‘he’s been my friend and he’s been my role model’. Baker served Bush as White House chief of staff and secretary of state.

Tilting his head up and addressing his friend ‘Jefe,’ he told Bush that he was ‘about to do something you always hated and that your mother always told you not to do: brag about yourself’.

‘We need a girl’: George H.W. Bush’s 1958 letter about daughter Robin

‘We need some starched crisp frocks to go with all our torn-kneed blue jeans and helmets. We need some soft blond hair to offset those crew cuts.

‘We need a dollhouse to stand firm against our forts and rackets and thousand baseball cards… 

‘We need a little one who can kiss without leaving egg or jam or gum. We need a girl.

‘We had one once. She’d fight and cry and play and make her way just like the rest but there was about her a certain softness. 

‘She was patient. Her hugs were just a little less wiggly.’

‘But she is still with us. We need her and yet we have her. We can’t touch her and yet we can feel her. 

We hope she’ll stay in our house for a long, long time.’

‘We waited for you’: The cartoon shows George H.W. Bush reuniting with his wife Barbara and daughter Robin

Bush never gloated when the Berlin wall fell, Baker said, and was without a doubt ‘America’s greatest one-term president’.

‘He was not considered a skilled speaker,’ Baker said, ‘but his deeds were quite elegant.’

Choking up, the man Bush called ‘Bake’ ended with a hat-tip to William Butler Yeats. ‘Our glory, George,’ he said, ‘was to have had you as our president and as such a friend.’

Wednesday’s awe-inspiring funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington was an unapologetic display of patriotic symbolism, with military escorts and flags of the 50 US states flying above the length of the center aisle.

A church service a day later in a no-less-imposing space featured just two flags: the stars and stripes draped over Bush’s casket and carried in front of it. 

The church choir rendered ‘This is My Country’ as a worship anthem and the National Anthem with pipe organ and soprano descant.

‘America the Beautiful’ was sung as a congregational hymn. ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ was sung without a military chorus. 

The flag-draped casket of former President George H.W. Bush is carried for burial by a joint services military honor guard at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum 

Thursday’s flavor was distinctly Texan, unlike days of previous Washington celebrations that had more of a national feel

As Bush’s casket arrived at his library at Texas A&M, the Navy honored him with a 21-plane flyover. The former president will also be honored with a 21-cannon salute and the sounding of ‘Taps’

The hearse arrives for the internment ceremony of George H.W. at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station on Thursday evening 

George H.W.’s flag-draped casket was wrapped with a plastic cover due to the rainy conditions

Bush was taken to his presidential library at the university, where he was laid to rest at a private ceremony

And while Wednesday’s musical centerpiece was famed tenor Ronan Tynan singing a showstopper based on Abraham Lincoln speeches, the Texas service featured the Oak Ridge Boys singing ‘Amazing Grace’ and Albert Hay Malotte’s ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ performed by country star Reba McIntyre.

Oak Ridge Boys tenor Joe Bonsall recalled how the group had performed for President Bush since 1983, when he told them he was a fan.

Bush was taken to his presidential library at the university, where he was laid to rest at a private ceremony next to his wife, Barbara, who died in April

‘What a lot of people may not know is he fancied himself to be a good bass singer,’ Bonsall said, as George W. Bush and Jeb Bush chuckled and shook their heads.

‘He was not,’ he added, cracking up the entire family.

Barbara Pierce Bush, one of former George W. twin daughters, read the 23rd Psalm along with two of the late elder George Bush’s other granddaughters, Elizabeth Dwen Andrews and Noelle Lucila Bush.

Noelle is the daughter of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, George W.’s brother. Marshall Lloyd Bush, the adopted daughter of their brother Marvin, read from the Old Testament. 

Former Houston Rockets stars Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutumbo were among the mourners on Wednesday, their 7-foot heights elevated above the crowd.

Nolan Ryan and Craig Biggio, both Hall of Famers who played for the Houston Astros, remembered Bush as a sports fan who loved his Houston teams.

Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former California governor, sat near the front. His bromance with the elder George Bush was well-known during his presidency.

George W. Bush was the only former president in attendance on Thursday. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also came to the Washington, D.C. service. So did President Donald Trump, who remained at the White House on Thursday.

Following the service, a hearse took the late president to the Union Pacific train station in Spring, Texas, where a special funeral train, with a locomotive painted in the colors of Air Force One and named 4141, journeyed two and a half hours to College Station. 

Thousands of Texans braved the rainy weather to pay their respects to George H.W. on Thursday afternoon as a special funeral train carried his casket from Spring, Texas to Texas A&M. His son, former president George W. Bush posted this photo to Instagram of him waving to the crowd, captioning it: ‘Thank you for making 41’s last ride so special’ 

David Lauren, who is married to Lauren Bush Lauren, posted these photos from inside the special funeral train, writing: ‘A view from inside the Union Pacific as proud Americans line the streets of Texas to honor 41’

The Plexiglass door on both sides of the car will allow the public to see Bush’s casket as it hauled on the route through Texas 

The funeral train is taking George H.W. Bush to the city where he’ll be laid to rest. The casket of the 41st president is visible through large windows on the side of the train car

A young spectator waves an American flag along the route where the casket of former U.S. President George H.W. Bush will travel aboard the Union Pacific funeral train

The train then embarked on a slow roll to his presidential library in College Station, passing thousands of people who stood along the tracks. Many of them held up their phones for pictures

Bush’s body was later loaded onto a special train fitted with clear sides so people could catch a glimpse of the casket as it rumbled by. David Lauren, Lauren Bush Lauren’s husband posted the photos from inside the train

The train’s sixth car, a converted baggage hauler called ‘Council Bluffs,’ was fitted with transparent sides to allow mourners lining the tracks views of Bush’s flag draped coffin. 

The 41st president’s son George W. Bush was so moved by the thousands of Texans who braved the gloomy weather to pay their respects to the former president that he posted a photo of himself waving to the crowds, writing: ‘Thank you for making 41’s last ride so special.’ 

Bush was then taken to his presidential library at the university, where he was laid to rest at a private ceremony next to his wife, Barbara, who died in April, and his daughter Robin, who died at age three in 1953. 

George H.W. carried the heartbreaking loss of his young daughter with him for more than 65 years.

Pauline Robinson ‘Robin’ Bush died after a six-month battle with leukemia.

Five years after Robin’s tragic death, the late president wrote an emotional letter to his own mother about his daughter’s passing.

In the letter to his mother Dorothy W. Bush, penned in 1958, the former president describes the loss of Robin to the family.

He writes about ‘needing a girl’ to offset ‘torn-kneed blue jeans and helmets, forts and rackets and thousand baseball cards’.

Bush described her as ‘patient’ with ‘hugs a little less wiggly’.

‘We need her and yet we have her. We can’t touch her and yet we can feel her.’

About 2,100 cadets in their tan dress uniforms with jackets and ties and knee-high boots waited for hours on the cold, gray day to line the road -known as Barbara Bush Drive – to the Bush library’s front doors. 

The US Navy conducted a 21 strike fighter flyover, a salute to the World War II Navy pilot, followed by a 21-gun cannon salute on the ground. 

The flyover was performed as an honor guard, close friends and relatives accompanied Bush’s casket to his family’s burial plot. 

George H.W.’s extended state funeral was held early Thursday in Houston, Texas, with the second imposing church memorial in two days

James Baker, a longtime Bush confidant who served him as White House chief of staff and secretary of state, said of the late president that ‘he’s been my friend and he’s been my role model.’ A tearful Baker embraced George W. Bush after his eulogy

George W. cries as country singer Reba McEntire sings The Lord’s Prayer during the funeral for his father on Thursday 

Barbara Pierce Bush (pictured), one of former President George W. Bush’s twin daughters, read the 23rd Psalm along with two of the late elder George Bush’s other granddaughters, Elizabeth Dwen Andrews and Noelle Lucila Bush 

After Reba’s performance, the gospel quartet The Oak Ridge Boys performed Amazing Grace 

George W. and his wife, Laura Bush leave St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston after the funeral

The flag draped over the casket will be presented to Bush’s daughter, Doro Bush Koch.

As the hearse drove to the library, more than 1,000 student cadets lined the route of the motorcade.

An honor guard carried his Bush’s casket down the steps of the special funeral train that arrived at College Station. 

George W. and other family members stood on the Texas A&M University campus as a band played the school’s ‘Aggie War Hymn’ fight song.

As Bush’s hearse made its way from Houston to Spring, mourners lined the streets as they paid their respects to America’s 41st president on Thursday afternoon. 

Thousands stood along the tracks, as many of them held up their phones for pictures and watched from highway overpasses.

The locomotive of the train is named 4141 in tribute to George H.W serving as the 41st President of the US

One of the first small towns to greet the train was Pinehurst, where Andy Gordon, took his six-year-old daughter, Addison, out of school so she and her three-year-old sister, Ashtyn, could witness the moment firsthand.

‘Hopefully, my children will remember the significance and the meaning of today,’ said Gordon, 38. In Addison’s hand were two small American flags. 

At one point, state troopers hovering in a helicopter ordered people to get off the tracks as the train approached 

People who turned out to pay tribute are leaving coins on the tracks to be flattened into keepsakes.

Fifty-five-year-old Doug Allen of Cypress left eight coins on the tracks before the train passed through the small town of Pinehurst. The train left his three quarters, three dimes and two pennies flattened and slightly discolored.

He says he only thought of the idea a few moments before the train passed and his wife and her friend found the coins in their bags. He says, ‘It’s something we’ll always keep.’ 

A 54-year-old Texan who served in the US Air Force during ‘Operation Desert Storm’ is among the many people who turned out to watch the special funeral train carry former President George H.W. Bush to his final resting place.

Men salute the president while standing on an orange tractor as women take photos of the passing train 

Following an emotional service at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, Bush was taken by hearse to Spring, Texas, where a joint services military honor guard carried his casket onto the special train that will take him and family members and close friends to College Station 

Ryder Davis, 3, watches the memorial train for President George H.W. Bush pass through Pinehurst, Texas, atop the shoulders of his father, 27-year-old Matthew Davis, on Thursday

Steven Lowry, 7, picks through the rocks underneath the train tracks moments after the memorial train for President George H.W. Bush had passed through Pinehurst, Texas. Many people who watched the train pass by took rocks or coins that were flattened by the train as keepsakes

Firefighters stand on their truck and salute along with other attendants on an overpass as the train carrying the body of former president George H.W. Bush travels past on the way to Bush’s final internment

Proud Texans held up the Texas State flag as the special train carrying the 41st president journeyed from Spring, Texas to College Station following a service at his favorite church in Houston 

Kevin Gulley, who lives in Cypress, traveled to nearby Pinehurst on Thursday to see the train carrying the casket of his former commander-in-chief.

Gulley wore a blue jacket with ‘US Air Force’ embroidered in gold lettering on the back and had a button reading ‘Looking Great for ’88″ on his lapel. He said he wanted to pay his respects to Bush.

Gulley stood waiting next to his son’s former football coach, 56-year-old Bill Powers. The two ran into each other here waiting for the train.

Powers says: ‘It’s what he wanted because he wanted everybody to be together.’ 

President Donald Trump said the memorial service in Washington for Bush was a ‘beautiful tribute’ to an extraordinary life.

People cheer as they get a glimpse of George H.W. Bush’s casket as the train rolled onto College Station on Thursday 

People pay their respects as the train carrying the casket of former President George H.W. Bush passes Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, along the route from Spring to College Station

The journey through five small Texas towns should take about two and a half hours. It will deliver the casket from suburban Houston to College Station. Pictured: Bush in 2005 at the unveiling of the locomotive 

Young children wave flags and hold a ‘thank you sign’ as the train rolls pass on the route from Spring, Texas to College Station

Layla Perez holds a balloon with a message for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush along the route where the Union Pacific funeral train will carry his casket

Crowds gather to watch the train carrying the 41st president to his final resting place on Thursday afternoon 

Police on horseback salute as the hearse carrying the flag-draped casket of former President George H.W. Bush

Members of the Bush family place their hands over their hearts as they watch the casket of George H.W. Bush be carried onto a special train that will take him to his final resting place in College Station 

US Military cadets get into position to form an honor cordon, as they wait for the arrival of the hearse carrying former US President George H.W. Bush in College Station

Trump on Thursday noted Bush’s passing at the start of a Hanukkah reception at the White House. He and first lady Melania Trump attended Bush’s state funeral service on Wednesday sitting next to the other living former presidents.

Trump called Bush a ‘wonderful man’ and a ‘beloved American patriot.’ He made the remarks as a special funeral train carrying Bush’s casket approached its final stop near Bush’s presidential library in Texas.

Bush’s family, who left St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston following a funeral that was attended by about 1,200 mourners, were joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bush’s longtime friend James A. Baker, country singer Reba McEntire, The Oak Ridge Boys, football player J.J. Watts and basketball player Yao Ming.

Baker choked up as he delivered a moving tribute to his friend, saying ‘he’s been my friend and he’s been my role model.’ 

Baker served Bush as White House chief of staff and secretary of state. 

Bush, who died last week at his Houston home at age 94, was eulogized Wednesday at a funeral service at the National Cathedral. 

By evening, his casket was at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.

The train’s sixth car, a converted baggage hauler called ‘Council Bluffs,’ was fitted with transparent sides to allow the mourners lining the tracks views of Bush’s flag-draped coffin

Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush walk to observe the departure ceremony as the flag-draped casket of former President George H.W. Bush

President George H.W. Bush’s extended state funeral began its final stages on Thursday in Houston, Texas , with the second imposing church memorial in two days

James Baker, a longtime Bush confidant who served him as White House chief of staff and secretary of state, said of the late president that ‘he’s been my friend and he’s been my role model.’ A tearful Baker embraced George W. Bush after his eulogy

Jim McGrath, a spokesman for the Bush family, says a Secret Service car is following the hearse as it travels from Houston to the city of Spring, where the casket will be placed on a special funeral train that’s headed to Bush’s presidential library at Texas A&M University in College Station

BUSH’S FUNERAL TRAIN: HE BECOMES THE EIGHTH PRESIDENT IN HISTORY TO HAVE HIS BODY TRANSPORTED BY THE LUXURY LOCOMOTIVE 

The train boasts of an opulent dining room, several lounges and even a business car lounge, capturing the glory of the golden era of railways. 

Bush’s funeral train was the eighth in U.S. history and the first since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s body traveled from the National Cathedral in Washington through seven states to his Kansas hometown of Abilene 49 years ago. Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train was the first, in 1865. 

Robert F. Kennedy was never president, but he was running for the White House when he was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968.  

George H.W. Bush has begun his final journey today, as his casket will be taken by train 70 miles from Houston to Texas A&M in a clear-sided baggage car that hails from the golden era of railroads. The locomotive of the train was named 4141 and painted to resemble Air Force One 

The inside of the train boasts of opulent dining rooms, several lounges, sleepers and business lounges, capturing the glory of the golden era of railways. This car, named the City of Portland, served as a diner and was built in 1955. According to Union Pacific, it was nicknamed ‘the Flying Banana’ and the ‘Saffron Whiz,’ due to yellow color scheme, which has since become a tradition for Union Pacific 

This car was built by American Car & Foundry in 1955 as dome lounge No. 9009 and named The City of Francisco in 1993. It is the only dome lounge in the Union Pacific Heritage Passenger Fleet that is still configured for end-of-train service, according to Union Pacific 

The Overland was built in 1949 by the St. Louis Car Company as lunch counter cafe and lounge No. 5015. It was rebuilt as a 36-seat diner in 1988. It received a wood interior upgrade in 2005

RFK’s body was later transported to New York City for a funeral Mass and then taken by private train to Washington for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Thousands of mourners lined the tracks for the 200-plus-mile journey. 

Union Pacific originally commissioned the Bush locomotive for the opening of an exhibit at his presidential library titled ‘Trains: Tracks of the Iron Horse.’ 

It was one of the few times the company has painted a locomotive any color other than its traditional yellow.  

The Portola deluxe sleeper was built in 1949 as a 12 roomette and four bedroom sleeper cabins. It was remodeled in 1965 to be an 11-bedroom sleeper. It went through another remodeling in the 1980s and received a wood upgrade in 2004 

The Harriman Lounge was built in 1955 as dome lounge No. 9004. It was remodeled and named Harriman in 1988. This car received a full wood interior upgrade in 2006. The car is named in honor of American railroad executive Edward Harriman

The Lone Star business car was built in 1950 by Pullman Standard and was rebuilt in 1957. It was originally named for Native American Chief Pocatello, Shoshoni tribal chief who allowed Union Pacific to build railways across Native American territory into Idaho. The car was renamed in 2001  

 

The Kenefick car served as business car, built in 1950 and named after John Cooper Fenefick in 1988. The trainmaster rose through the ranks at Union Pacific to become VP of Operations and later president of the railway company 

The Overland diner was build in 1949 and used as a lunch counter cafe before it was rebuilt in 1988 as a 36-seat diner. It received its most recent upgrade in 2005

The Walter Dean lounge car was built in 1955 and named after a dining car waiter, who served Hollywood legends Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. Dean also served President Harry Truman during his ‘Whistle Stop Campaign’ in 1948. Dean died in 1999, staying with Union Pacific even after passenger service ended in 1971

After a brief training session during 4141’s unveiling 13 years ago, Bush took the engineer’s seat and helped take the locomotive for a 2-mile excursion.

‘We just rode on the railroads all the time, and I’ve never forgotten it,’ Bush said at the time, recalling how he took trains, and often slept on them, during trips as a child with his family. He also called the locomotive ‘the Air Force One of railroads.’

The funeral train has been part of the official planning for his death for years, Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said.

Union Pacific was contacted by federal officials in early 2009 and asked, at Bush’s request, about providing a funeral train at some point, company spokesman Tom Lange said.

‘We said, ‘Of course and also we have this locomotive that we would want to have obviously be part of it,” Lange said. 

He noted that trains were the mode of transportation that first carried Bush to his service as a naval aviator in World War II and back home again. 

After a brief training session during 4141’s unveiling 13 years ago, Bush took the engineer’s seat and helped take the locomotive for a 2-mile excursion.

The train’s sixth car, a converted baggage hauler called ‘Council Bluffs,’ has been fitted with transparent sides to allow mourners lining the tracks views of Bush’s flag draped coffin. Pictured: Workers prepare for Bush’s departure ceremony on Thursday

Bush, who died last week at his Houston home at age 94, was eulogized Wednesday at a funeral service at the National Cathedral. By evening, his casket was at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston 

View through the window of a train car that carries former American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s coffin towards its burial on April 14, 1945

George H.W. Bush will be taken by the train from Houston to Texas A&M’s campus in College Station, which will be about a two and a half hour journey. Pictured: Locomotive 4141 outside the university’s football stadium in 2005

Eisenhower was the last president to travel by train regularly. A key reason was his wife, Mamie, who hated to fly. During the 1952 campaign, Eisenhower traveled more than 51,000 miles and made 252 stops. 

And while he often flew, his wife rode the train the whole time, Union Pacific said.

Still, when Bush beat Democrat Michael Dukakis and won the presidency in 1988, both candidates used trains to make some campaign stops. Bush also occasionally traveled by train in 1992, when he was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton, including making Midwest stops aboard a train dubbed ‘The Spirit of America.’ 

Bush was president from 1989 to 1993, navigating the collapse of the Soviet Union and expelling former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces from oil-rich Kuwait.