Mourners Brave Cold Rain to Bid Brown Farewell

Several hundred mourners stood for hours in a cold, driving rain Tuesday to bid goodbye to Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, who died April 3 with 34 others when his plane crashed in Croatia during a trade mission to the former Yugoslavia.

Brown, 54, was to lie for 24 hours in the ornate lobby of the Commerce Department, his body in a mahogany coffin atop a black-velvet-draped catafalque built in 1865 to bear the body of President Abraham Lincoln.

A full-honors funeral is scheduled for today at Arlington National Cemetery after President Clinton delivers a eulogy at the National Cathedral. The Commerce Department is to be closed nationwide today in mourning.

At the Pentagon, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ralph Eberhart addressed some of the speculation about the cause of the crash, saying neither the crew’s flying time nor its inexperience with a foul-weather beacon system appears involved.

Brown’s body arrived at Commerce as his family and Vice President Al Gore looked on. A Navy band played the hymn “Nearer My God To Thee” as pallbearers carried the flag-draped coffin, which was guarded by representatives of the five military services. A table nearby displayed photographs of 11 Commerce employees who died with Brown.