The kid from Kelly St. got a send-off worthy of an American hero.
With presidents and statesman looking on, Gen. Colin Powell was laid to rest Friday after a funeral at Washington National Cathedral marked by stirring eulogies that befitted his status as a barrier-breaking military leader and top diplomat.
Powell, the down-to-earth son of Jamaican immigrants who famously boasted that “the Bronx never left me,” died last week at 84 of complications from COVID.
“Colin Powell was a great lion with a great heart,” his son Michael Powell said while choking back tears during his eulogy. “We will miss him terribly.”
“I came to view Colin Powell as a figure who almost transcended time,” said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. “His virtues were Homeric: honesty, dignity and loyalty and an unshakeable commitment to his calling and word.”
President Biden sat in the front row for the tribute to the larger-than-life soldier and statesman who rose from humble beginnings in the South Bronx to become the youngest and first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black secretary of state.
Also in the pews were Powell’s ex-boss, former President George W. Bush, and former President Barack Obama, who became the first Black president two decades after Powell declined to run for the nation’s highest office.
Along with traditional mournful strains, Powell was serenaded in death by a military band’s rendition of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” the iconic soundtrack of his beloved West Indian island homeland.
The most prominent absentee was former President Donald Trump, who classlessly derided Powell after his death and made no effort to hide the grudge he held against Powell for opposing his White House runs.
Powell burst to national prominence as the nation’s top military leader during Operation Desert Storm, in which the U.S. ousted Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi military from Kuwait.
His self-confessed biggest mistake was vouching for false claims about Saddam’s supposed weapons of mass destruction that enabled the disastrous second Gulf War in Iraq.
Along with Michael Powell and Albright, Richard Armitage delivered a eulogy. Armitage served as deputy secretary of state under Colin Powell, and the two were close friends.
Powell died Oct. 18 of complications from COVID, one of over 750,000 Americans who have perished in the pandemic so far. He had been vaccinated against the virus, but his family said his immune system was compromised by multiple myeloma, a blood cancer for which he had been undergoing treatment.
Powell’s rise to prominence was a quintessentially American tale.
In his autobiography, “My American Journey,” Powell recalled a post-Depression Era childhood in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, where he was a mediocre student — happy-go-lucky but aimless.
He caught the military bug during his first year at the City College of New York in 1954. Inspired by seeing fellow students in uniform, he enrolled in the school’s Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Powell would go on to serve 35 years in uniform, including two tours in Vietnam.
He rose to become the top military leader and the top diplomat, achievements that led many to believe he would one day become the nation’s first Black president. In the end, he rebuffed calls for a White House run.
He put his credibility on the line in February 2003 when, appearing before the United Nations as secretary of state, he made the case for war against Iraq. When it turned out that the intelligence he cited was faulty and the Iraq War became a bloody, chaotic nightmare, Powell’s stellar reputation was damaged.
After retiring from government, he became an elder statesman on the global stage and the founder of an organization aimed at helping young, disadvantaged Americans.
Seeing him as a potential candidate with crossover appeal, Republicans still wanted him to run for president. After becoming disillusioned with the GOP, he ended up endorsing the last three Democratic presidential candidates, who welcomed his support.
Lloyd Austin, who in January became the first Black secretary of defense, called Powell an invaluable friend and mentor in a military that could be hostile to African Americans.
On the day of Powell’s death, Austin called him “one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed.”
