Feinstein, who died Sept. 29 at age 90, was the oldest sitting senator at the time of her death and one of the oldest ever to serve in Congress. She helped redefine what it meant to be a female politician in America, becoming the first woman to serve as San Francisco mayor, the first woman elected to the Senate from California, and the first woman to lead the powerful Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
“She showed young women everywhere that they, too, can be leaders, that they can make an impact, and that they deserve a seat at the table,” Feinstein’s granddaughter, Eileen Mariano, said in a speech.
A crowd of hundreds listened under the afternoon sun to a eulogy by Rabbi Jonathan Singer and a Hebrew prayer song by Cantor Roslyn Barak. The San Francisco Girls Chorus performed “To Dream The Impossible Dream” and Judy Garland’s “San Francisco.” Nearby, a two-story-tall picture of Feinstein from her Senate days was displayed on a scaffold on the side of the building.
“Within Dianne’s very soul,” Biden said in a recorded statement, “lay the defining trait of great leaders: character.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) remembered Feinstein as an “unflappable” colleague. He recalled how she once fractured her ankle while out walking one morning but spent the day ignoring the pain so she could oversee a summit on preserving Lake Tahoe, one of her signature statewide causes.
“Asked how she got through the day, she only offered three words: ‘I just did,’” Schumer said. “She had an internal gyroscope that propelled her, motivated her, never let her stray from a cause she knew was right.”
Feinstein’s health declined in her final years in the Senate, leading to increasing questions about her fitness to serve and, in her final months, calls for her resignation.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Feinstein’s close friend and colleague, defended Feinstein’s decision to stay in office in her memorial remarks. She noted that one of her final votes was to keep the government funded to avoid a shutdown.
“Dianne left us as she had lived,” Pelosi said. “She left on her own terms.”
It was in San Francisco City Hall, the imposing granite-and-marble seat of government at the center of downtown, that Feinstein first vaulted into the national spotlight decades ago. And it was there that Feinstein lay in state Wednesday as mourners from around the country paid their final respects.
A hearse escorted by police motorcycles and squad cars wound through the city after dawn, arriving at the entrance on Polk Street just after 8 a.m. Pallbearers carried Feinstein’s casket, draped in an American flag, up the steps and into the shadowy rotunda as family members looked on, flanked by Mayor London Breed and dozens of police and firefighters.
Pelosi was among the first allowed in. She was joined by her husband, members of Feinstein’s family and Pelosi’s own daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda, who helped care for Feinstein in the senator’s final days.
With Feinstein’s daughter, Katherine, at her side, Pelosi made the sign of the cross, then leaned down and placed her arm over the casket.
Soon after, the doors opened to the public. A long line of people filed through the rotunda, some pausing to lay cards and bouquets of flowers.
Many senators who have died in office after long and storied careers have lay in state at the U.S. Capitol. That was most recently the case for the late senator John McCain, of Arizona, who died in 2018.
Feinstein instead was returned to the place where her political ascent began.
She was president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1978, her aspirations for higher office fading, when a former supervisor fatally shot Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the country’s first openly gay public officials. Feinstein rushed toward the gunfire. Milk died at her side.
She announced the deaths that night from outside city hall, calling on San Franciscans to “rebuild from the spiritual damage” caused by the killings in a speech that drew national attention. Soon after, she was appointed to succeed Moscone, becoming the first female mayor in the city’s history.
She remained in office for nine years. After losing a bid for governor in 1990, she was elected to the Senate in 1992, in what would become known as the Year of the Woman for the dozens of new female lawmakers voters sent to Congress.
In the Senate, she made a name as a centrist stalwart, rankling conservatives with her support for same-sex marriage rights and gun control, while drawing criticism from the left for her hawkish stances on national security and law enforcement.
“Dianne diligently focused on the impacts to real people, not ideology,” Vice President Harris said at Thursday’s memorial. “Substance, not showmanship. Results, not rhetoric.”
A military jet carried Feinstein’s body to San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, where a color guard accompanied by rows of police officers and squadrons of firetrucks were assembled.
Pelosi stood on the tarmac, watching as Feinstein’s casket was loaded into a hearse. A ray of light broke through the gray clouds, and Pelosi wiped away tears.
Memorials to Feinstein sprung up across the city. At her home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood, residents laid flowers at her doorstep and paused to take photographs there. Her family’s brick mansion sits across from a poignant public art instillation: a golden heart that faces the San Francisco Bay, a nod to Tony Bennett’s famous ode to the city.
“She offered our city,” Pelosi said in a statement after Feinstein’s death, “a beacon of strength and hope.”
Reis Thebault contributed to this report.
