WASHINGTON -- William H. Rehnquist was remembered at his funeral yesterday not as a chief justice who led a conservative counterrevolution on the U.S. Supreme Court but rather as a husband, father, grandfather, patriot, lover of music and committed Christian.

	Kevin Wolf, Associated Press Supreme Court justices, from bottom, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer walk down the steps of the Supreme Court ahead of the the casket of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

He was also remembered as someone who retained his sense of duty -- and his sense of humor -- during a nearly year-long battle with thyroid cancer.

"We remember the integrity and the sense of duty that he brought to every task before him," President Bush said in his eulogy at a two-hour service at Washington's ornate Cathedral of St. Matthew.

Recalling Rehnquist's determination last Jan. 20 to administer the oath of presidential office, Bush said: "Many will never forget the sight of this man, weakened by illness, rise to his full height and say in a strong voice, 'Raise your right hand, Mr. President, and repeat after me.' "

Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Rehnquist's Stanford Law School classmate and a longtime friend, praised Rehnquist for his annual State of the Judiciary reports, his collegial style as chief justice -- "He never twisted arms to get a vote on a case," she said -- and his expert handling of former President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.

But O'Connor dwelt on the chief justice's personal qualities.

"His sense of humor never left him and he could break up a tense moment with a funny story, a quip or poem," O'Connor said.

That was true, O'Connor said, even in the last stages of Rehnquist's illness.

"As he was being examined in the emergency room of a local hospital, in the final week of his life," O'Connor recalled, "the examining physician asked who was his primary care doctor. 'My dentist,' he struggled to say, with a twinkle in his eye."

Bush and O'Connor were the only government officials to address the service. It was led by the Rev. Dr. George W. Evans Jr., the pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in McLean, Va., Rehnquist's home parish.

	Evan Vucci, Associated Press The casket of the Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is carried out of St. Matthew's Cathedral yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

The Rehnquist family requested that the service be held at St. Matthew, a Roman Catholic cathedral, because of its location and large size.

The congregation, however, included a Who's Who of official Washington: Bush and his wife Laura, Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynn; all eight Supreme Court justices; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, the administration's chief advocate in the high court; Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist; and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. The service also was attended by several former Rehnquist law clerks, including Judge John G. Roberts Jr., the man nominated by Bush to succeed Rehnquist.

Rehnquist, who died last Saturday, served on the Supreme Court for 33 years, 18 of them as chief justice. Originally a lonely dissenter, in time and with the appointment of other conservative justices he was able to shift constitutional law to the right on many if not all issues. He was especially successful in rehabilitating the legal doctrine of federalism: the notion that there are limits on Congress' power to override the prerogatives of the states.

But Rehnquist's legal philosophy received scant attention in a service that lived up to its billing as a rite for "family and friends."

In his remarks welcoming the family to St. Matthew's, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, praised the chief justice as "a tireless champion of life" -- an allusion to Rehnquist's dissent from the Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. And O'Connor recalled that as a law student Rehnquist "had conservative views backed up by brilliant analyses."

But the only other notable reference to Rehnquist's constitutional views came in the eulogy by the chief justice's son, James C. Rehnquist, a criminal defense lawyer. After noting his father's image as a law-and-order conservative, the younger Rehnquist related how his father used to ask him about the cases he tried.

"I told him about the difficulty of doing criminal defense work under the law as he built it," Rehnquist told the congregation.

In a theme sounded by several others, James Rehnquist said that his father never allowed his career as a lawyer and judge to dominate his life.

"Before the term 'work-life balance' existed, he was its early champion," Rehnquist said, noting that his father considered family vacations "sacred" and during his career as a trial lawyer in Arizona would come home for dinner and then return to the office to prepare arguments for the next day.

In 1973, William Rehnquist, by then a Supreme Court justice, was invited to address his son's graduating class at Langley High School in Virginia.

"The country was deeply polarized," James Rehnquist recalled, and the invitation was controversial. But when Justice Rehnquist addressed the class, his theme was "the importance of smelling the roses as you go through life."

After the speech, James Rehnquist recalled, one of his liberal school friends accosted him and said: "Rehnquist -- your dad's cool!"

"No one smelled more roses than my dad," James Rehnquist said. "He read books and he wrote books."

The chief justice was also eulogized by his daughter Nancy Rehnquist Spears and his granddaughter, Natalie Ann Rehnquist Lynch. Natalie read from a "Dear Gramp" letter she sent after Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. "Your strength has impressed me," Natalie wrote. "You've shown us all how to live your life."

Evans, the Rehnquist family pastor, said that the chief justice was a "serious churchman" whose faith strengthened his resolve to remain on the court despite his illness.

"As recently as a week ago Monday he was intending to be with the associate justices on the first Monday in October," Evans said.

In her eulogy, O'Connor also referred to Rehnquist's last days.

"The chief was a betting man," O'Connor said. "He enjoyed making wagers about most things. The outcomes of football or baseball games, elections, even the amount of snow that would fall on the courtyard at the court. If you valued your money, you would be careful about betting with the chief. He usually won.

"I think the chief bet that he could live out another term despite his illness. He lost that bet, as did all of us, but he won all the prizes for a life well lived."

After the funeral Rehnquist, a World War II veteran, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.