Thousands of mourners stood in the desert heat to say goodbye to Barry Goldwater, the outspoken former senator who inspired a generation of Republicans and gave birth to modern conservatism.
Figures from four decades of American politics remembered Goldwater on Wednesday, noting his colorful language, humor and heartfelt opinions that defined the Arizona Republican as "Mr. Conservative.""The people of this blessed place know as sure as they know anything that he was one of them," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who replaced Goldwater in the Senate in 1987. "Barry Goldwater will always be THE senator from Arizona."
Goldwater, a five-term senator, died Friday of natural causes at his home in suburban Paradise Valley. He was 89.
The funeral drew two plane loads of congressional and other officials from Washington, D.C., including House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The U.S. Senate shut down because so many senators wanted to attend.
Former senator and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, California Gov. Pete Wilson and former Vice President Dan Quayle, who now lives near Phoenix, also attended.
"He changed our lives," former first lady Nancy Reagan said as she arrived for the funeral of the man who inspired Ronald Reagan with his conservative views. "I remember him being a completely honest man - blunt, a very funny man."
Goldwater's funeral capped a two-day tribute that drew lines of mourners to the downtown Phoenix church where he was baptized. Before dawn Wednesday, people began lining up to guarantee themselves places in the 3,300-seat auditorium.
With cowboy bluntness, Goldwater relentlessly advocated trimming government, building a strong military and fighting communism.
But his views and his campaign slogan, "In your heart, you know he's right," didn't resonate with voters in the shadow of President Kennedy's assassination. Lyndon Johnson portrayed Goldwater as a nuclear warmonger and won in a landslide in the 1964 election.
Still, Goldwater's 1964 campaign aides and volunteers would become the GOP conservative leaders of a later generation. And he was re-elected to the Senate in 1968, working until his 1987 retirement.