McCain's 106-year-old mom to attend his memorial services

Washington DC: John McCain's 106-year-old mother, Roberta, is expected to attend memorial services in Washington and his burial in Maryland later this week.

Roberta McCain once said the middle child she called "Johnny" liked to use her as an example of "what he hopes his lifespan will be." But she now mourns him instead of the other way around. The Vietnam prisoner of war, congressman, senator and two-time presidential candidate died of brain cancer last Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81.

Following memorials in Arizona, McCain will lie in state at the US Capitol on Friday. He will be celebrated at a memorial service Saturday at Washington National Cathedral before his burial Sunday at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. A group of more than 80 Vietnamese residents came from Southern California on two buses to pay their respects to the late Sen. John McCain at a public viewing in Arizona.

The group wore specially made yellow T-shirts that said, "We salute our hero Senator John McCain." Derrick Nguyen said a radio station in the Little Saigon community of Orange County announced it would provide bus transportation to the ceremony on Wednesday.

Nguyen, an attorney and a community organiser, said more than 100 people signed up but several stayed back because of the heat and timing.

McCain was beloved for his history of fighting alongside the South Vietnamese and for supporting the families of political detainees. Nguyen said in the 1990s, McCain pushed an amendment to a law that allowed for unmarried, adult children of detainees to come to the US.