A New Orleans-Style Goodbye For Lindy Boggs

Family, friends and colleagues of former Congresswoman Lindy Boggs filled St. Louis Cathedral yesterday morning to pay their final respects.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and John Lewis, Congressman and civil right leader, were among the many who attended the funeral to share their words of praise for Boggs.

Both of them spoke before Boggs' funeral Mass at St. Louis Cathedral.  Both said she was gracious but an iron-willed fighter who worked for New Orleans and civil rights for women and minorities.

Boggs represented New Orleans for 18 years after succeeding her late husband, Hale Boggs, in the House of Representatives.  Her husband's plane went down somewhere over Alaska in 1972.

Lindy Boggs also served as the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

She died last Saturday at the age of 97 at her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

A second-line procession through Jackson Square happened after the Mass.