Ex-Hostage Spends Quiet Day With Family : Homecoming: After an emotional late-night celebration in Boise, Ida., Jesse Turner visits his mother. He maintains silence about his captivity.

After an emotional late-night welcoming reception complete with bands, chorus and greetings from the governor and mayor, freed hostage Jesse (Jon) Turner spent a quiet first day back in his hometown Saturday, relaxing with his family and trying to forget his nearly five years of captivity.

“He doesn’t want to talk about it or remember it,” said his Lebanese wife, Badr, who married the Beirut University professor just six months before he was taken hostage in Lebanon in 1987. “He’s relaxed and happy. He’s getting back to normal.”

After a hospital stay in Germany, Turner, 44, flew into Boise late Friday night with his wife and their 4-year-old daughter, Joanne. On Saturday, which was proclaimed “Jesse Turner Day” throughout the state, he spent much of the time lounging around the family’s two-bedroom duplex apartment 100 yards from his mother’s house--the house where he grew up.

Family members said Turner does not want to discuss his captivity with the news media because he fears his comments might affect the remaining Western hostages.

“He’s very concerned about that,” said his mother, Estelle Ronneburg. “He said he’ll say something in a couple of days.”

Turner, his wife and daughter visited his mother in the afternoon, with Turner marveling at how much had changed since he was last home in 1984.

“It’s different,” he said before putting out a cigarette and walking through a front door decorated with five yellow ribbons symbolizing his years in captivity.

Relatives said Turner, a mathematics and computer science professor, was “overwhelmed” at the reception he received when he arrived here.

About 2,500 residents, waving small U.S. flags and cheering wildly, gathered in cold, drizzly weather on the steps of the Idaho Statehouse to welcome Turner in a 40-minute ceremony that lasted until midnight.

“Boise, Idaho,” Mayor Dirk Kempthorne proclaimed, “your son Jon Turner is home.”

“We are assembled here, Jon, to remind you that we never gave up hope,” Gov. Cecil D. Andrus said. “We are very proud of the dignity that you displayed as you fought the battle against isolation and tyranny.”

Turner was given 14,000 welcome-home cards and was serenaded by a children’s choir singing “That’s What Friends Are For.” Church bells rang, and his old high school band played “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Four doves were released in honor of the four Americans who are still being held by Shiite Muslims in Beirut.

At the end of the ceremony, a pale and exhausted Turner spoke briefly.

“It’s cold,” Turner said. “All I want to say is thank you. Thank you for everything.”