Funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush held in Houston

HOUSTON, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Funeral for the late former First Lady Barbara Bush was held Saturday in a Houston church where four former presidents and other dignitaries attended.

Former President George H.W. Bush was helped into the cavernous sanctuary with a wheelchair behind his sons, former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and other Bush relatives to remember his wife of 73 years.

Seated near the front of the church were two other former presidents -- Bill Clinton and Barack Obama -- along with their wives and current First Lady Melania Trump.

National flags were flown at half-mast for the wife of the nation's 41st president and mother of the nation's 43rd as the service began at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston.

President Donald Trump did not attend the funeral but released a statement Saturday saying his "thoughts and prayers" are "with the entire Bush family."

After the funeral, a motorcade carried her body to the George Bush Presidential Library Center in College Station, Texas, on the campus of Texas A&M University. There, she will be buried next to their their-year-old daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953.

Barbara Bush served as the first lady during her husband George H. W. Bush's presidency between 1989 and 1993. She is also the mother of former President George W. Bush, who served between 2001 and 2009. Enditem