Baldrige’s Body Is Flown Home for Connecticut Rites

The body of Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, who died in a riding accident, was flown home Sunday from California, while saddened government officials praised him.

Baldrige, 64, whose passion for rodeo provided a colorful sidelight to his successful business and political careers, died Saturday of injuries suffered when his horse reared as he was roping a steer and landed on him as they both fell backward.

A government Boeing 707, piloted by an Air Force crew, arrived with Baldrige’s body at Bradley Airport shortly after 2 p.m. A nine-member military honor guard from Washington loaded the flag-draped coffin in a black and silver hearse, which left immediately for a Woodbury funeral home.

Accompanied by Couple

The body was accompanied from California by a couple who declined to be identified. The man wore a cowboy hat, which he removed and held over his heart as he and the woman watched the coffin being unloaded. They immediately boarded another plane.

“I feel like I’ve lost a brother; I loved the guy,” Vice President George Bush said through his press secretary, Steve Hart.

Baldrige, a moderate Republican, headed Bush’s 1980 campaign for President in Connecticut and was expected to play a role in Bush’s 1988 effort. His Cabinet appointment in 1981 was seen widely as a gesture to Bush.

“In Washington, everyone is a power broker. But he would overcome you with his gentle manner,” said Rep. John G. Rowland (R-Conn.), a Waterbury native whose family knew Baldrige’s well.

“He wasn’t a guy who beat you over the head,” Rowland said. “But the guy had a manner and an attitude that worked.”

Funeral Thursday

A memorial service for Baldrige will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the National Cathedral in Washington, said B. Jay Cooper, who served as his spokesman. Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at North Congregational Church in Woodbury, followed by a private burial, Cooper said.

Baldrige, a one-time ranch hand who attended Yale University, was in high spirits before Saturday’s accident, which occurred while he was preparing for a rodeo competition Saturday night in Brentwood, Calif., about 75 miles from San Francisco.

“I would have been a rancher when I got out of the Army, except I didn’t have the money or the ranch,” Baldrige told the Antioch (Calif.) Daily Ledger moments before the accident.