Скачать или смотреть USA: COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS PAY LAST RESPECTS TO RON BROWN

(10 Apr 1996) English/Nat

Colleagues and friends have peen paying their last respects to US Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who was killed in a plane crash in Croatia.

About 15-hundred mourners turned up at a Washington church to share their remembrances of him.

Others gathered at the Commerce Department where the remains of Ron Brown are lying in state a top a coffin-stand built in 1865 to bear the body of President Lincoln.

In contrast to the public show of grief since the air crash which killed Ron Brown, a celebration of his life was held at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington D-C.

About 15-hundred colleagues and other mourners gathered to share their remembrances of Brown ahead of his funeral which is taking place Wednesday.

Members of the black community and many prominent democrats read eulogies to Brown.

SOUNDBITE:
"Ron was first in so many things. His career was so brilliant and conspicuous that he was almost certainly bound to be a target for some as surely as he was a role model for others."
SUPER CAPTION: Senator Ted Kennedy

Brown was America's first black commerce secretary and first black chairman of the Democratic Party.

He is credited with helping elect President Clinton in 1992 and earned respect for his tenacity in promoting American trade interests around the world.

Washington Mayor Marion Barry praised Brown's spirit.

SOUNDBITE:
"Of all the attributes that I could think about was that he had an incomparable soul, an incomparable spirit, a spirit that would not let him trample on those that he passed on the ladder to success because he knew that he would meet those same people on the way down."
SUPER CAPTION: Marion Barry, Mayor, Washington, D.C.

A more private memorial ceremony was held at the Commerce Department Brown ran for three years.

There, his remains are lying in state inside a top a coffin stand built in 1865 to bear the body of President Lincoln.

The funeral bier has been used for other American presidents, including John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower, and Supreme Court justices and military leaders.

The funeral service will be held at Washington National Cathedral and President Clinton is expected to deliver the eulogy.

Brown, an army veteran, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...