A steady stream of thousands of mourners quietly walked through doors framed by long, black drapes into the Capitol Rotunda on Sunday to pay their respects to former President Gerald R. Ford, who died last week at his home in Rancho Mirage.
Ford's casket rested atop a platform known as a catafalque. Six members of the military stood ramrod straight in crisp uniforms, encircling the casket.

Visitors were allowed just a few minutes in the room, before staff members encouraged them to exit outdoors. Tables with condolence books and easels with pictures of Ford stood outside near the Capitol steps, where mourners from Kansas to California signed their names and wrote an occasional message to the family.

For Laurie Wilson, a former high-school student at Riverside's La Sierra Academy, memories of Ford are forever linked with her teenage years.

Pausing Sunday afternoon outside the hushed Rotunda where Ford's body lies in state, Wilson recalled studying Ford, the nation's 38th president, during his 1976 election bid. She was enrolled at the Seventh-day Adventist academy at the time.

Her teacher said history had shown that being tall and the incumbent made Ford the likely victor in his battle against Jimmy Carter, Wilson said. Those odds, of course, weren't enough to keep Ford in the White House past the partial term he served.

Ford's loss was partly blamed on his pardon of former President Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal.

"I have always thought he was a good man and wondered why he didn't get another chance," said Wilson, who now is 45 and living in Catonsville, Md. "I just have very clear pictures of sitting in history class when the name Gerald Ford comes to mind."

Wilson, who works at the world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Maryland, still has family living in La Sierra and ties to Riverside County. She said she is proud that Ford and his wife, Betty, chose to live in Rancho Mirage for nearly three decades.

"When I hear that they're out there, I do feel that special connection," Wilson said. "There's that bit of home there."