World leaders and a bevy of Washington's political and foreign policy elite paid their respects to the late Madeleine Albright. Albright was America's first female secretary of state.
Some 1,400 mourners gathered Wednesday morning at Washington National Cathedral, led by President Joe Biden and predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Biden delivered a eulogy at Wednesday's service.
"To Madeleine from my perspective, there was no higher mission, no greater honor to serve this great experiment of freedom known as the United States of America," Biden said. "May her memory continue to be a blessing to our nation, and may we remember her words and her deeds. May she always be a light for all those in the darkest places."
Albright died of cancer last month at age 84. She rose through the ranks of Democratic Party foreign policy circles to become ambassador to the United Nations. Clinton selected her as secretary of state in 1996.
Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Honor in 2012.