GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — They lined the streets and bridges hours in advance of the hearse's arrival, hoping to get a glimpse yesterday of the coffin carrying Gerald Rudolph Ford, a man who hadn't lived here for more than a half-century but is still considered the hometown boy who never really left.

"He never forgot where he came from or the people who helped develop him," Jerry Pfeiffle, a 57-year-old financial adviser from Grand Rapids, said as he waited outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum, where Ford's body lay in state and on whose grounds he will be buried today in a private ceremony.

Thousands turned out on a chilly, windy afternoon for this solemn homecoming — Boy Scouts in red scarves, hundreds of saluting veterans in uniform on a bridge crossing the Grand River, old acquaintances remembering a most approachable friend, and younger people drawn to the stories they'd heard.

This is the final stop of the official six days of mourning for the 38th president. Air Force One delivered Ford's body and scores of friends and dignitaries to the Grand Rapids airport named for the former president.

While waiting for the coffin to be lifted into the hearse, the University of Michigan band played the school's famous fight song, "The Victors," and Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in 1976, leaned over and kissed former first lady Betty Ford on the cheek.

In an elaborate national funeral service in Washington, D.C., earlier yesterday, Ford was lauded by President Bush as "a good and decent man" whose affability cloaked a "firm resolve."

As cannons boomed and bells pealed and 10,650 organ pipes echoed through the cavernous Washington National Cathedral, Ford received a sendoff he could hardly have imagined as a young Midwestern boy abandoned by his father shortly after birth 93 years ago. Ford died on Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Bush escorted Mrs. Ford, 88, down the aisle of the great stone cathedral, which stretches nearly the length of two football fields and has soaring towers, 215 stained glass windows and an organ with 10,650 pipes.

"Gerald Ford assumed the presidency when the nation needed a leader of character and humility, and we found it in the man from Grand Rapids," President Bush told 3,772 heads of state, justices, lawmakers, military officers, Cabinet secretaries, diplomats and other mourners. "President Ford's time in office was brief, but history will long remember the courage and common sense that helped restore trust in the workings of our democracy."

A FINAL SALUTE

After two hours, the casket was brought out of the cathedral, and the bourdon bell tolled 38 times for the 38th president as the cortege made its way to Andrews for the final trip home to Michigan, where Ford will be interred today in a hillside tomb at his presidential museum as 21 aircraft fly overhead in a missing-man formation.

The state funeral culminated four days of ceremonies in Washington that reflected the character and career of the man: the earnest Midwestern congressman, the reassuring vice president and president who steadied the nation following the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.

"History has a way of matching man and moment," said Bush's father, the first President Bush, comparing Ford to other presidents who ruled in dark times. "And just as President Lincoln's stubborn devotion to our Constitution kept the union together during the Civil War, and just as FDR's optimism was the perfect antidote to the despair of the Great Depression, so too can we say that Jerry Ford's decency was the ideal remedy for the deception of Watergate."

The last act of Ford's state funeral was playing out at his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, open throughout last night and this morning for the public to pay final respects. Thousands waited in line last night to file past Ford's casket.

'BEST OF AMERICA'

The service in Washington unfolded in the spirit of one of its musical selections — "Fanfare for the Common Man" — as powerful people celebrated the modesty and humility of a leader propelled to the presidency by the Watergate crisis.

"In President Ford, the world saw the best of America, and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation's history," President Bush said in his eulogy.

Ford's athletic interest was honored, too, in the capital and in Michigan. At the Grand Rapids airport that bears Ford's name, the Michigan band played the school's famous fight song, "The Victors," as Ford's flag-draped casket was transferred to a hearse.

He had played center for the Wolverines in their undefeated, national championship seasons in 1932 and 1933 and turned down several pro football offers to go to law school at Yale instead.

He was appointed vice president by Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned in a bribery scandal stemming from his days as Maryland governor. After Nixon resigned, Ford assumed the presidency for 2 1/2 years.

A month after taking office, Ford pardoned Nixon for any Watergate crimes he might have committed.

KISSINGER TRIBUTE

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, delivering one of the most emotional tributes of the day, spoke as if addressing Ford directly, in remarks at the museum. "You were a paradoxical gift of remarkable intellect and achievement wrapped in a plain brown wrapper," said Granholm, a Democrat.

Under towering arches of the cathedral in the morning, Henry Kissinger, Ford's secretary of state, paid tribute to his leadership in achieving nuclear arms control with the Soviets, pushing for the first political agreement between Israel and Egypt and helping to bring majority rule to southern Africa.

"In his understated way, he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery," Kissinger said. "Gerald Ford had the virtues of small-town America."

NBC newsman Tom Brokaw said Ford brought to office "no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit list or acts of vengeance," an oblique reference to the air of subterfuge that surrounded Nixon in his final days.

'HE'S ONE OF US'

Awaiting a glimpse of the motorcade yesterday in Grand Rapids, many onlookers recalled Ford's modesty and candor when he took the presidency after the Watergate crisis, attributing his response to the values he learned growing up in the area.

"He's one of us. He's a hometown guy," said 73-year-old Dorothy Fischer, a lifelong Grand Rapids resident.

"He's not an 'I-Me' person. He's for everybody," said Carol Clapp, 73, of Kalamazoo. "He tried to make things good for the country."

The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, McClatchy-Tribune News Service and Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Ford family, front row from left, Michael Ford, Steven Ford, Betty Ford, Susan Ford Bales and Jack Ford, along with, front row right, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush; Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynn; President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn; and Nancy Reagan, watch as the casket of President Ford is carried by a military honor guard during a state funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington.