Thousands Brave Lines to Pay Final Respects : Turnout: Mourners shared their memories of the late President as they waited. Later, police began urging that no more people come.

Bernice L. Collins, 81, a veteran campaign worker for Richard Nixon, sat near the front of the long line of mourners. Raindrops had beaded on the chrome frame of her wheelchair.

Nearby was Tom Nooner, 42, of San Clemente, who had stood outside the White House in 1974 to show his support for Nixon the day he announced his resignation.

Art Bustamonte, a former Marine rifleman who was pulled out of Vietnam more than 20 years ago by then-President Nixon, huddled under an umbrella with his teen-age daughters.

“I came here out of loyalty and to pay my respects, because if it weren’t for Nixon, I might not be standing here right now,” said Bustamonte, 41, of Alta Loma. “I’ll never forget the elation of getting on that plane and returning home.”

In the rain, thunder and hail of a lingering April storm, thousands of people Tuesday began turning out at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace to honor the former President. Clutching flowers and miniature American flags, they patiently waited along Yorba Linda Boulevard for hours before they were allowed a brief moment to pay their last tribute to Nixon, whose body lay in a simple wooden casket.

By late Tuesday night, the line of 5,000 to 6,000 people stretched for several miles down Yorba Linda Boulevard, and the wait in chilling temperatures was about eight hours. Several arguments broke out when people tried to cut in, and about 10:30 p.m., the Police Department asked the media to urge people not to come.

About 355 police officers waited in reserve for the point when authorities would have to tell those still in line that they would not be able to see the casket, Police Lt. Mike Messina said. Police estimated that would happen about 2 a.m.

“There will probably be a lot of unhappy folks,” Messina said. An Orange County sheriff’s deputy stringing yellow crowd control tape along one area of ther line said, “It’s a nightmare. It’s just a nightmare. By the time people get to this point they’ve been in line 5 1/2 hours and their patience is pretty thin.”

At 11 p.m., library officials estimated that 10,000 people had viewed the casket, and were passing through at a rate of about 2,500 per hour. Once inside the lobby, visitors slowly walked single file around the closed, flag-draped coffin--their contact with one of the nation’s most intriguing public figures lasting less than a minute.

“This is American history,” said Steven Heathcote, 28, of Yorba Linda, earlier in the day as rain streamed down his umbrella and drenched the cast on his broken foot. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”

Most chose to remember Nixon for his personal strengths and foreign policy achievements, not for the Watergate scandal that drove him from the presidency or the Vietnam War that divided the nation.

“I’ve come here simply out of respect for my commander in chief,” said Collins, who lives in Los Angeles and has worked on almost all of Nixon’s political campaigns.

As evening set in, the line outside moved at such a slow pace that it took as long as four hours to arrive at the library entrance. The temperature had dropped into the 50s, and children were getting cranky.

All along the line of mourners, people were damp and cold, and babies were bundled up in their strollers. Some of those with families started to call it quits late Tuesday night but vowed to return during today’s pre-dawn hours.

To pass the time, people sang songs and told jokes. Children from the surrounding neighborhood sold $1 cups of hot chocolate, dispensed from pump thermoses. The line at the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise down the block from the Nixon library seemed just as endless.

The outpouring of sympathy was a solemn prelude to today’s more elaborate state funeral, which will be held a few yards from the white clapboard house where Nixon was born.

By the time viewing started at 3 p.m., an estimated 10,000 people had queued up for a mile down the main thoroughfare of this bedroom community, which is now host to the largest international event ever held in Orange County.

Nixon’s closed casket will be on display until 11 a.m. today. For those not invited to the memorial service, it is the only chance to participate in honoring the former President before he is buried next to the grave of his wife, Pat.

Inside the library, more than 200 bouquets of roses, carnations and irises surrounded the viewing area. Near the door was a large picture of Nixon smiling and giving a thumbs-up sign. A military color guard stood erect and expressionless by the coffin.

For the viewing and funeral, the Clintons sent a wreath of red, white and blue flowers with red, white and blue ribbons. A red anthurium spray came from the emperor of Japan. President Lech Walesa of Poland sent a wreath of red and white carnations, and pianist Van Cliburn, a longtime friend of Nixon’s, paid tribute with a large spray of red roses and white lilies.

One enormous wreath had been sent by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who felt snubbed by Nixon during his recent visit to the former Soviet Union. Its red and gold sash shimmered in the lights.

Upon exiting the lobby, the library staff handed out a cream-colored card embossed with the presidential seal. “The Nixon family thanks you for visiting and for expressing your affection and respect for the President,” the note stated.

People filed by for hours, some on crutches, some in wheelchairs, some pushing their children in strollers. A few had come from as far away as Oklahoma. Many were somber, showing little emotion, but as night set in people began emerging from the viewing area with tear stains glistening on their cheeks.

“Waiting in line so long you sort of forget why you’re here and then it hits you. I cried when I saw it,” said Jean LaPorte, 64, of Orange.

Iron Eyes Cody, with a big feathered war bonnet on his head, made the long walk through the television trucks and teaming crowd. He was so tired he had to sit down when he reached the portico. People rushed to give him a chair.

Cody, now 90, is best known as the Native American who posed with a tear on his cheek for an “America the Beautiful” commercial years ago. He caught his breath and delivered a prayer outside the library entrance.

“We were good buddies,” Cody said of his relationship with Nixon.

Nixon’s casket arrived at the library about 1:45 p.m. after being taken by motorcade from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, where the Boeing 707 bearing his family and that once served him as President landed an hour before.

When the Nixon motorcade approached the library and the hearse came to a stop at the entrance, the crowd remained silent. As the color guard carried the casket in a slow procession into the library, a U.S. Air Force band struck up “Hail to the Chief.” The mourners finally surged forward as the front doors were opened for the viewing.

“We are here to pay tribute to an old friend,” said Polin Soth, 51, a Cambodian immigrant from Long Beach who had brought a huge standing wreath bearing the flag of the former Cambodian republic. “He was always there to help us in the fight against Communists.”

Rochelle Berg said she didn’t mind being pelted by hail and rain for her short glimpse of the President’s casket. “How long did he serve us?” she asked. “I think we can stand in line a few hours for him.”

Other Observances

While the funeral for former President Richard Nixon is for invited guests only, other Orange County observances will be open today to the public:

* Beginning at 3:30 p.m., the funeral will be broadcast live at the Crystal Cathedral on a 11-by-14-foot Jumbotron TV screen. In keeping with President Clinton’s call for national mourning, organizers at the cathedral-- at 12141 Lewis St. in Garden Grove--invite residents to observe the funeral in a prayerful setting.

* Messiah Lutheran Church, 4861 Liverpool St. in Yorba Linda, will have a memorial service for the former President beginning at 7 p.m.