By Tribune Staff

Lee’s Summit R-7 School District Board of Education Vice President Jacqueline Clark happened to be at the right place at the right time this week.

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, she was in Washington, DC on business and was able to spend her evening in line for nearly three hours to pay respect to the President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, as he lay in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.

President Bush, 41, is the ninth president to lie in state in the US Capitol rotunda.

“It was such an honor to be able to be to pray and pay my respect to the man who was truly one of the thousands points of light,” said Clark.

Clark explained that she joined the line approximately three hours before she was able to be admitted to the Capitol rotunda.

“The experience of queuing up to honor a former president is without precedent,” Clark said. “I have met Presidents and it was such an incredible experience to be able to honor a true World War II American hero and a former president that I was so fortunate to have met.”

Clark also lined up to honor former US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after his passing in February 2016. “Both events were so incredibly reverent. I cannot adequately express the grief that our fellow citizens expressed as they waited to enter the U.S. Capitol.”