Challenger Commander Laid to Rest

ARLINGTON, Va. — In a ceremony brightened by songs of adventure and hushed by the sweet farewell of a wife who shared his passion for privacy, Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, commander of space shuttle Challenger, was buried Monday on a hillside reserved for heroes.

Scobee, killed along with six other crew members when the Challenger exploded Jan. 28, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, within paces of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and adjacent to the graves of three Marines who shared an earlier bold mission that met with disaster--the attempt to rescue American hostages from Iran in 1980.

Steadied by a military chaplain, Scobee’s wife, June, knelt at the grave to leave a single red rose alongside a bright yellow bouquet from Scobee’s fellow astronauts. An Air Force honor guard then placed a wreath of carnations from President and Mrs. Reagan.

The brief graveside ceremony, with full military honors, followed a private chapel service filled with poetry and music about men and women who reach for the beyond--”High Flight” and “The Impossible Dream” among them. Astronaut Norm Thagard delivered the eulogy.

The Air Force Band led Mrs. Scobee and her two children, Kathie Scobee Krause and Richard Scobee, from the chapel to the grave site, where the astronaut’s remains had been interred hours before the ceremony. The children left miniature American and Air Force flags next to their mother’s rose.