The body of Mrs. Vera Weizmann, widow of the first President of Israel, was brought by plane today from London for a state funeral tomorrow. She will be buried next to her husband at Rehovot, location of the science institute which bears the Weizmann name. She died in London Saturday at the age of 87.
Premier Levi Eshkol ordered the state funeral and issued a statement mourning Mrs. Weizmann as “a woman of distinction and also an esteemed dear friend. ” He added that the people of Israel “will pay honor to a woman whose life coincided with a whole chapter of the nation’s history during which it achieved independence.”
She will be laid to rest tomorrow in the small family plot in Rehovot, on a small hill overlooking the Weizmann Institute.
The coffin was brought directly from Lydda Airport to the Weizmann Institute, where it lay in state today with army officers as an honor guard. Other units of the guard of honor were members of the Israel Women’s Army, policewomen and Magen Dovid Adom nurses.
The public will be able to pay its respect until tomorrow morning, when funeral services will begin. President Zalman Shazar will deliver the eulogy. Army chaplains will conduct the religious rites. The family and a small number of invited friends will follow the coffin to the gravesite, where army chaplains again will officiate.
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