America remembers this remarkable woman for the quiet dignity with which she let a nation and a stricken wife mourn the loss of a president they loved. And our first reaction to her in those days of mourning was gratitude.
She became for us a kind of living assurance that beauty and grace outlive tragedy and loss.
Now we mourn her passing, after a long tumultuous life that was marked above all by quiet service and a love of beauty.
We will miss her. We mourn with her daughters and their families. And we join them in honoring a very good American life that was spent in generous service to family and country.