WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- President Bush and his wife, Laura, headed a parade of mourners Sunday who passed by the coffin of Rosa Parks as she lay in state in the Capitol rotunda.
Parks' body was flown to Washington after a funeral service in Montgomery, Ala., where she helped start the civil rights movement almost 50 years ago by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was among the speakers at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.
"Without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here as secretary of state," she said.
Some members of the public stood in line for eight hours or more to enter the rotunda.
"Because of her strength, courage and presence, it is more than befitting to have her final minutes with us here on earth displayed in this fashion," said Tynetta Magruder, who came from New Jersey.
The Capitol was to remain open until midnight Sunday, and then reopen for three hours Monday morning. After a service at a Washington church, Parks' body is to be flown to Detroit, where she lived for many years, for burial on Wednesday.
