The late Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, has walked up to the flag-draped casket holding her husband's body at the Arizona Capitol and patted it, then leaned over and kissed it.
The rest of his children then filed past the casket and touched it today, including his sons in uniform and daughter Meghan McCain who was weeping.
Gov. Doug Ducey and his wife bowed and McCain's former colleagues, Sen. Jeff Flake and former Sen. Jon Kyl, both touched the casket.
Flake gave a prayer at the ceremony that preceded a public viewing for the 81-year-old Republican who died Saturday of an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Arizona's governor says Sen. John McCain was one of the only politicians who could get people to set aside politics.
Gov. Doug Ducey said at a private ceremony Wednesday at the state Capitol that imagining Arizona without McCain is like imagining the state without the Grand Canyon, two things it's known for.
The governor called McCain one of Arizona's favourite adopted sons.
Ducey said Arizona residents knew they could follow McCain, who served in Vietnam as a Navy pilot and was captured as a prisoner of war, because he was trusted and tested, qualities that are in short supply.
The ceremony with McCain's wife, Cindy, children and other politicians came ahead of a public viewing for the 81-year-old Republican who died Saturday of an aggressive form of brain cancer.
McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, wept as her family stood in front of the Arizona senator's flag-draped casket at the Arizona Capitol.
For some Arizona residents, McCain has been a political fixture in the state for their entire lives. He took office in Arizona in the early 1980s, first as a congressman and then as a senator in the seat once held by Sen. Barry Goldwater.
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