Thousands Join Clinton in Mourning His Mother : Funeral: Neighbors, officials and Hollywood figures hear Virginia Kelley eulogized as ‘on the way to heaven.’

Several thousand mourners, including neighbors, government officials and Hollywood figures, joined President Clinton on Saturday at the funeral of his mother, Virginia Kelley, who was eulogized as “a celebration on the way to heaven.”

The flamboyant Kelley, who died Thursday from complications of breast cancer, was so popular that the service was conducted at the 3,000-seat civic auditorium in Clinton’s boyhood home, rather than at a church.

All of Hot Springs’ residents were invited to attend and nearly every seat was filled. Hundreds waited outside the hall in 18-degree weather for an hour before the doors opened at 7:30 a.m. local time.

Three Methodist ministers conducted the service, including the Rev. John Miles, a family friend and the pastor of St. James Methodist Church in Little Rock, Ark.

To show their respect for Kelley, city officials flew the flags at municipal buildings at half-staff, and signs of affection were posted in many shop windows. “God Bless You, Virginia,” read the marquee of a local music club.

The mourners included Vice President Al Gore, Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown and longtime government friends, including Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) and Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.

Hollywood was represented by singer Barbra Streisand and TV producer Harry Thomason, strong supporters of the President. Only last week, Kelley had attended Streisand’s concert in Las Vegas.

The President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, both wearing black, sat somberly in the first row for the Methodist service as the strains of the hymn “Amazing Grace” filled the auditorium. Their daughter, Chelsea, and Kelley’s husband, Richard, were alongside them. Clinton did not speak at the service.

After the morning service, Clinton led a funeral procession on the 90-mile drive to his birthplace in Hope, Ark., for a private burial service. Kelley was laid to rest among the graves of other family members, including Clinton’s father, William Jefferson Blythe, who was killed in a car crash shortly before the President was born. Two later husbands also died.

The funeral service, billed as “a celebration of life and resurrection,” was joyful and upbeat for the retired nurse who loved parties and horse-racing and fought a four-year battle against breast cancer before succumbing at age 70.

Miles eulogized Kelley as “an American original,” saying the woman who loved to gamble probably would have preferred that the services be held at the race track.

“She went to church and then she went to the races right after,” he told the congregation. “She was filled with the very essence of life. She was a celebration on the way to heaven.”

Referring to the President and to his younger half brother, Roger, Miles said of Kelley: “She loved her sons unconditionally, and she needed to at times. Both of them.”

Roger Clinton, a singer and musician, is a recovered drug addict.

At the end of the day, Clinton held back tears as he said goodby to his stepfather and half brother, who held a single yellow rose and wept openly.

The President gave his stepfather a bear hug before departing for Washington aboard a presidential aircraft.

Clinton’s emotional return to Arkansas marked the third time in a year he has returned to his home state for a funeral of someone close to him. Hillary Clinton’s father, Hugh Rodham, died of a stroke last April, and Vincent Foster, White House deputy counsel and a longtime family friend, committed suicide last July.