Sheltered beneath a white tent, they waited patiently at the edge of a sun-baked parking lot in Simi Valley.
They had gathered by the hundreds to say goodbye to a woman who had not only touched their lives but also embodied an era — and a marriage — that many of them recalled fondly.
“We love her,” Linda Finley said as she boarded a shuttle that would take her to view the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. “She’s an icon, first lady and wife.”
Throughout the afternoon and early evening Wednesday, 3,115 mourners filed through the hushed marble lobby of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to pay their final respects.
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Ron Reagan, second from left, and his sister, Patti Davis, pause at their mother Nancy Reagan’s casket at her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Mourners and family members pause at Nancy Reagan’s gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and his wife, Charlotte Mailliard Swig, reach out to touch Nancy Reagan’s casket during her funeral service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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From left, California Gov. Jerry Brown, First Lady Michelle Obama, former First Lady Laura Bush and former President George W. Bush wait to pay their respects at Nancy Reagan’s gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Ron Reagan hugs a mourner as his sister, Patti Davis, left, looks on during funeral services for their mother, Nancy Reagan, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter pauses at Nancy Reagan’s casket at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Former Chief of Staff James Baker, right, and his wife, Susan, wait to pay their respects during funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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A military honor guard places Nancy Reagan’s casket at her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Ron Reagan, left, greets mourners at his mother Nancy Reagan’s funeral at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney pauses at Nancy Reagan’s casket at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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A bagpipe player plays “Amazing Grace” as a military honor guard carries Nancy Reagan’s casket to her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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A military honor guard carries Nancy Reagan’s casket to her gravesite at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Ron Reagan speaks at the funeral of his mother and former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Diane Sawyer speaks at the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Daughter Patti Davis speaks at the funeral of her mother and former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Journalist Tom Brokaw offers reflections during funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
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Former Secretary of State James Baker speaks at the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Pallbearers carry the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan into her funeral service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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First Lady Michelle Obama, center, arrives with former President George Bush, right, and his wife, Laura Bush, second from right, and Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, second from left, for the funeral services for former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
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Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney reads a letter from Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan during the funeral service for former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
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Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives for the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Actors Mr. T, left, and Gary Sinise arrive for the funeral of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Steven Leslie prays in front of the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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A line circles around the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Kimberly Leif, of Simi Valley, cries in front of the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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People pay their respects in front of the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley Wednesday.
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A man prays in front of the casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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People pay their respects to former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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The casket of former First Lady Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Nancy Reagan’s casket is framed by a statue of former President Ronald Reagan at the presidential library in Simi Valley.
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Nancy Reagan’s casket at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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A woman wipes a tear away as she pauses beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Stella Delgado, left, and her mother Yoko Santos pause as they pay their respects beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
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Flowers are placed on the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan stands near the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
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Library volunteers pause as they pay their respects beside the casket of Nancy Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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The casket carrying Nancy Reagan arrives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
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A motorcade carrying the body of former First Lady Nancy Reagan arrives at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Flowers are placed at the entrance to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as people wait for the motorcade bringing Nancy Reagan’s body to lie in repose.
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Flags and flowers are placed at the entrance to the Ronal Reagan Presidential Library as people wait for the motorcade bringing Nancy Reagan’s body to lie in repose.
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A woman takes a selfie at the entrance to the Ronal Reagan Presidential Library waiting for the motorcade bringing Nancy Reagan’s body to lie in repose.
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The Rev. Ken Worthy Stuart, Vicar of the Washington National Cathedral, gives the final blessing after the casket carrying the former first lady Nancy Reagan was loaded into a hearse at a mortuary in Santa Monica, Calif.
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A motorcade carrying the mortal remains of former First Lady Nancy Reagan travels from Santa Monica to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Firefighters salute as the hearse carrying the body of Nancy Reagan makes its way to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
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Rachel Handy carries an American flag after watching the motorcade escorting the body of former first lady Nancy Reagan pass by on the Ronald Reagan Freeway en route to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
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Firefighters salute as the hearse carrying the body of Nancy Reagan makes its way to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
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The casket carrying the former first lady Nancy Reagan leaves a small ceremony at a mortuary in Santa Monica, Calif.
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Family members watch as the casket carrying the former first lady Nancy Reagan leaves a small ceremony at a mortuary in Santa Monica, Calif.
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The casket carrying former First Lady Nancy Reagan leaves a mortuary in Santa Monica after a small ceremony en route to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
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Mourners arrive at the Santa Monica mortuary where a small ceremony for former First Lady Nancy Reagan was held Wednesday.
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A police officer stands guard outside a mortuary where a small ceremony for former Frst Lady Nancy Reagan was held Wednesday.
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Flowers and flags decorate a fountain outside the mortuary where a small ceremony for former First Lady Nancy Reagan was held Wednesday in Santa Monica.
(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) Tears poured down Daniel Blatt’s cheeks as he stepped away from the velvet-roped viewing area.
Asked if he had known Nancy Reagan personally, he shook his head. “It’s the love story,”he said, his voice breaking.
“He wouldn’t have been anything without her by his side,” the 52-year-old West Hollywood writer said of the former president. “I loved how devoted he was to her, how much he knew he owed to her. He had a good wife and he trusted her for counsel. She supported him throughout his life.”
Wednesday was the first of two days that the public will be allowed to pay respects to the former first lady. The official “lying in repose” will continue from 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thursday. On Friday, Reagan will be buried beside her husband in a private ceremony.
Among those who had made the pilgrimage were Warren Weston and Lelia Lee of Oxnard.
The Reagans “represented the best of America,” said Weston, 67. “It’s a tribute to a bygone era, back when both parties would get along.”
Weston and Lee, who married in 2001, said they recognized a bit of themselves in the Reagans.
“She cared about her husband,” said Lee, 60, as she adjusted her black sun hat.
The first lady’s enormous casket lay covered with flowers on a black pedestal surrounded by a velvet rope and watched over by motionless guards. Mourners, spaced a few feet apart, circled slowly, some head-down or eyes-left, others stopping in momentary reflection.
As they left the room, they were handed cards with Nancy Reagan’s monogram in red: “With Gratitude for Your Expression of Sympathy in Honoring the Life of Nancy Davis Reagan.”
Memorial ceremonies had begun earlier in the day in Santa Monica, with a private observance at the Little Chapel of the Dawn at the Gates, Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy mortuary.
It was there that Nancy Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, greeted about 20 of the former first lady’s close friends and family members, including Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, and Dennis Revell, husband of the former president’s late daughter Maureen.
The public gathered in Simi Valley, Calif., on March 9 to pay respects to former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
Nancy Reagan’s casket was then carried by pallbearers that included members of her Secret Service detail to a hearse for the 45-mile motorcade to Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles.
As the motorcade pulled away from the Tudor-style funeral home, hundreds of onlookers crowded the boulevard, holding up cellphones and cameras.
Library officials say Reagan had planned her own funeral down to the last detail, including the guest list and the location of her interment.
When the library was built, the Reagans decided they wanted to be buried together on the west side of the property, facing the Pacific Ocean, said Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library.
First Lady Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton are among about 1,000 expected to attend Friday’s private funeral. Other former first ladies expected to attend are Laura Bush, with her husband, former President George W. Bush, and Rosalynn Carter.
President Obama, who was scheduled to be at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas, will not attend, according to several media outlets.
Wednesday’s proceedings attracted both Republicans and Democrats.
In the parking lot, shuttles brought in fresh mourners as those returning drifted back to their cars.
“No cards, no gifts for Mrs. Reagan on the bus!” a staff member moving down the line instructed. “We’re collecting them here.”
Diana Aschenbach, 39, said she pulled her three children out of school to pay their respects. Aschenbach said she “revered” Nancy Reagan growing up, and it was important to “pass this on” to her kids.
She still remembers “Just say no,” a phrase coined by Reagan to campaign against drug use.
“This is history,” Aschenbach told her kids driving to the shuttle pickup.
“I know it’s not what they’d rather do right now, but they’ll remember it,” she said.
Aschenbach’s 9-year-old son Cameron came with an almost accurate picture of the woman he came to mourn:
“She was a very important first lady,” he said, “and she was second in command president.”
“Not technically,” his mother corrected. “Close advisor.”
After her viewing, Texan Linda Finley stepped off the bus with Joe, her husband of 45 years, and offered some last words on the former first lady:
“She wasn’t subservient in any way, and yet she still had that honor, that respect, and that love for her husband. Young people today need to learn from history and know how to be a wife that God wants you to be.”
matt.stevens@latimes.com
Twitter: @ByMattStevens
nita.lelyveld@latimes.com
Times staff writer Doug Smith and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
