Dick Cheney Remembered As ‘True Man Of The West’ At D.C. Funeral

WASHINGTON, D.C. — There were many ways Dick Cheney was remembered as he was laid to rest at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.

A selfless patriot who grew up in Casper.

Four decades of public service that included being the youngest White House chief of staff, a congressman from Wyoming, Pentagon chief, and the 46th vice president of the United States.

A loving family man and a loyal friend. 

Kind, witty, and a horseback rider and fly fisherman who is now driving his Ford pickup in Heaven. 

Most of all, he was a “true man of the West,” as former President George W. Bush put it.

While his funeral was happening 1,770 miles from his hometown of Casper, Wyoming, there was a palpable Cowboy State feel to the service, said state Sen. Ogden Driskill.

“There was a lot of Wyoming there,” said Driskill, adding his family has been longtime friends with the Cheneys. “I would say the section we were in had quite a few from home, a great show of Wyoming people.”

Those included Gov. Mark Gordon and former Gov. Matt Mead, state Sen. Cale Case and a host of others, Driskill said.

While the politics around the final years of his life made headlines for his support of his daughter, Liz, and being outspoken against President Donald Trump (who was not invited), Driskill said Thursday’s funeral wasn’t political at all.

“I did not see any of that, not even a little bit,” he told Cowboy State Daily after the service. “Nobody took any swipes at anything or made any political statements. … It was just very civil and very good.”

It also was grand, filling the large cathedral with a who’s who of American politics from both the right and left, Driskill said.

While Trump wasn’t there, former President Joe Biden was, as were members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation.

“It was the nicest service I’ve ever been to in my life,” Driskill said. “The messaging was just really across the board what you’d expect.”

Son Of Wyoming

Like Cheney, Pete Williams grew up in Casper. He worked for Cheney in Congress and at the Pentagon, later becoming an NBC News correspondent.

“As someone who grew up in the same town, Casper, went to the same high school, enjoyed the same wide-open spaces, I can’t think of anybody who better embodied Wyoming values than Dick Cheney,” Williams said.

While others changed in the face of gaining political success and power, Cheney always followed the same bedrock moral code, he said.

“He judged people by what they accomplished and stood for,” Williams said, adding that he also loved Wyoming. “Wyoming loved him back, electing him six times to the House of Representatives.”

Williams related an anecdote of Cheney taking responsibility for a mistake that was actually made by Williams and another employee at the Department of Defense.

“When the boss that you serve cleans up after your mistake, you can bet that inspires loyalty,” Williams said.

Williams also recalled the time Cheney crossed out the word “bureaucrat” in a draft paper Williams had written and replaced it with “federal official.”

Williams said that showed Cheney’s respect for government service.

And there was some mischief behind Cheney’s famous crooked smile, Williams said, calling it his “sly sense of humor.”

He recalled a time when Cheney was running for reelection to Congress.

“He walked up to some old rancher, stuck out his hand and said, ‘I’m Dick Cheney, I’m running for Congress, and I’d like to have your vote,’” Williams said. “And the rancher replied, ‘You got it. That guy we got in there now is just no damn good.’”

But most of all, Williams said that, “Dick Cheney was a good and decent man. He loved his family and his home state, and his highest aspiration was serving the country.”

Cheney’s President

Former President Bush remembered Cheney as, “A man I was proud to call my vice president and my friend.”

He said Cheney wasn’t initially his choice as vice president. In fact, Bush enlisted him to help weed through the potential choices.

“Twenty five years ago, I had a big choice to make, a big job to fill,” Bush said. “I wanted to know all my options, so I enlisted the help of a distinguished former White House chief of staff and secretary of defense to lead my search for a running mate.”

He and Cheney would plow through the files one by one, measuring them by the values Bush said he wanted in a VP: preparedness, mature judgment, rectitude, and loyalty.

Above all, someone who could “step into the presidency without getting distracted by the ambition to seek it,” he said.

“After weeks of these meetings, I began to have a thought I could not shake,” Bush continued. “I realized the best choice for vice president was the man sitting right in front of me, and I told him that.”

Instead of being flattered or saying “yes” on the spot, Cheney instead “insisted in giving me a rundown of all the reasons I should not choose him,” Bush said.

“In the end I trusted my judgment,” he said. “I remember my dad’s words when I told him what I was planning. He said, ‘Son, you couldn’t pick a better man.’”

As someone famous for being able to make hard decisions, Dick Cheney also was humble and playful, Bush said.

He even let his grandson take him to kindergarten for show-and-tell, Bush said.

“I wish I’d have been there,” Bush said, eliciting laughter from the crowd. “The teacher told Dick that was the most exciting show-and-tell since a little girl brought her cow to class.”

'A Good And Decent Man'

While in Republican circles former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney and her famous father had become pariahs in recent years, that wasn’t evident Thursday.

Liz Cheney remembered her father as a dad and grandfather to her children who led by example.

She recalled one of his favorite things to do was to visit historic sites. And not just to visit, he wanted to learn and absorb the history.

“My dad would load up our station wagon on the weekends to take us to visit Civil War battlefields,” she said. “With the back seat down and no need for seat belts in those days, we would stretch out eating Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast while my dad drove us to places like Gettysburg and Antietam and Chancellorsvill and Manassas.

“Even with the donuts, Mary and I were not enthusiastic participants in these outings,” she added. “When you’re 5 or 6 years old, this is not your idea of a good time.”

Liz Cheney also said her father was something rare in Washington, D.C., politics because he put the Constitution over partisan agendas.

“For him, a choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all,” she said.

Standing up for what he believed also is how Williams said he remembered his longtime friend since childhood.

“Dick Cheney was a good and decent man," he said. "He loved his family and his home state, and his highest aspiration was serving the country."

Dick Cheney died Nov. 3 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. He was 84.

Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com and Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.