James Roosevelt Buried With Military Honors : Funeral: Upbeat services draw overflow crowd of 450 mourners for the former diplomat, politician and oldest son of F.D.R.

CORONA DEL MAR —  With a 21-gun salute and the strains of taps, James Roosevelt, who was the last surviving child of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was buried with military honors Sunday on a hill above the Pacific Ocean after a church service that drew about 450 mourners.

Roosevelt died at dawn Tuesday in his Corona del Mar home after several strokes and a lengthy bout with Parkinson’s disease. He was 83.

The funeral service at the Newport Center United Methodist Church drew an overflow crowd that included Maureen Reagan, daughter of former President Ronald Reagan, businessmen Carl Karcher, George Argyros and John Lusk, and a smattering of political figures, including County Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Harriett M. Wieder.

The service, led by pastors Robert Morley and Ken McMillan, featured songs and hymns requested by Roosevelt before he died. They included Broadway hits from “South Pacific” and “Man of La Mancha,” an F.D.R. theme, “Happy Days are Here Again,” and folk songs such as “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”

The pastors eulogized Roosevelt, a former congressman and United Nations delegate, as a loving, caring individual who shared his father’s stands on most political issues but who also dared to be independent.

“He was not afraid to speak his mind, but never with a mean spirit,” the Rev. Morley said of F.D.R.’s oldest son, who shocked the Democratic Party by endorsing Richard M. Nixon in 1972 and later supporting Ronald Reagan.

Morley also listed Roosevelt’s accomplishments, including his service as a member of the Orange County Transportation Commission and as a lecturer and trustee of Chapman College.

“His word was his bond . . . He was a storyteller, like his father, with a twinkling eye,” Morley said. “You know the substance of James . . . the tender moments shared only by a few, or perhaps by only one of you. . . . Take them out and share them with one another, like opening a jewel box. Remember the little things that the history books know nothing of.”

After Roosevelt’s son James Jr. read the 23rd Psalm, the Rev. McMillan said it was Roosevelt’s choice not to be buried at the family estate at Hyde Park, N.Y.

“In a very real sense this represents the end of an era,” McMillan said, referring to F.D.R.’s legacy and quoting James Roosevelt’s declaration that his name was a mixed blessing and he had to be himself.

Recalling that Roosevelt was not always successful in politics, having been defeated in bids to become governor of California and mayor of Los Angeles, McMillan said: “He always acknowledged what he learned from each of those losing efforts.”

And McMillan spoke of Roosevelt’s controversial business career, which included an association with convicted swindler Bernard Cornfeld. “There were some notable failures,” McMillan said. “He trusted people. He thought people would be fair. . . . And that sometimes caused his downfall.”

But McMillan also noted Roosevelt’s honors, including the Navy Cross, and the Humanitarian of the Year award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Former Presidents Nixon and Reagan telephoned Roosevelt’s wife, Mary, during the week, McMillan said, as did well-wishers from throughout the nation.

After Morley joked that Roosevelt loved the Marine Corps and the Rams football team--”not necessarily in that order”--McMillan said the Roosevelt family attended Saturday night’s Rams’ game in Anaheim in Roosevelt’s memory, as he would have wanted.

The service ended with the Marine Corps hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” and then the flag-draped coffin was escorted out of the church by a Marine Corps Honor Guard commanded by Brig. Gen. Drax Williams and Lt. Col. David Jacobs.

In the church courtyard, Maureen Reagan said she met Roosevelt several years ago and also saw him at her father’s second inauguration in Washington. She recalled: “We invited Jim and Mary to a party the next day, and he came. Everyone in the room was shocked. But I said, ‘Well of course they came. He’s my friend.’ ”

“I got to know Jim when he first moved to Orange County,” said Karcher, owner of the Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain. “He just had us over to his house for dinner recently and he asked me to sit in a very special chair. Since I’m somewhat bigger than Mr. Roosevelt, you know, I sat in that chair very carefully.”

Up the hill from the church, at graveside in the Pacific View Memorial Park, the Marines presented Mary Roosevelt with the flag that had draped her husband’s coffin.

Besides his wife, Roosevelt is survived by seven children and 20 grandchildren.