UNION, S.C. -- Moved by emotion and a sense of duty to the souls of two little boys allegedly killed by their mother, hundreds of people from miles around came to say goodbye to Michael and Alex Smith yesterday.
Three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, whose disappearance kept the nation in suspense for 10 days, were buried together in a single white casket blanketed with yellow roses.
Their father, David Smith, was distraught, weeping often through church services and at the pastoral graveyard, his face buried in a handkerchief. Their mother, Susan Smith, remained in a state prison cell in Columbia, S.C., accused of drowning the boys to unburden herself for a relationship with a boyfriend not interested in a ready-made family.
Mrs. Smith, 23, who is under a suicide watch, was kept away by a state regulation that bans murder suspects from attending victims' funerals.
"Sometimes God takes the most precious jewels to be with him for eternity, and we cannot have them back, but we can go to be with them," said the Rev. Joe Bridges, one of four ministers who spoke to more than 1,000 mourners at Buffalo United Methodist Church, just outside this small town.
For an event receiving international news media coverage, there was an unusual air of dignity to the services at the church and at the rural Smith family cemetery plot. All was hushed even as the crowds -- gripping tissues and flowers, and leaning on each other for support -- pressed to be close to the services.
None of the hundreds of television and newspaper cameras was allowed inside the overflowing church.
Union County Sheriff Howard Wells -- who led the long investigation that ended in Mrs. Smith's reported confession and the discovery of the boys' bodies in her submerged car -- patrolled the crowd. His deputies wore black bands on their badges, and Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. declared a statewide day of mourning.
At the nearby Bogansville United Methodist Church cemetery, the crowd respected the family's privacy and did not go beyond a ring around the gravesite formed by hundreds of wreathes -- some in the shapes of ponies, lambs and Mickey Mouse.
A sign close to the coffin read, "Alex & Michael. Heaven Bound." President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton were among those from around the nation and as far away as Australia who sent flowers.
If racial sensibilities were still bruised over the upset caused by Mrs. Smith's claim that a black gunman had forced her from her car, stealing it and the boys, it was not evident yesterday. The crowds, while largely white, contained tearful black faces.
"I came to pay my respects," said 70-year-old Anna Mae Brown, a black woman who came 50 miles and said the charges of racism in the way the case was handled were not her concern this day.
Ronnie Moore, a black mechanic from Columbia, 70 miles away, said, "I was offended for a little while. But mainly I feel very sorry for him [Mr. Smith]. I don't think I could deal with something like this. It's something he's got to go to bed with every night and wake up to every morning."
Children seemed to be everywhere, watching and comprehending the sad event in varying degrees.
Asked if she understood the ceremonies, 6-year-old Lara Cohen said, "It's to watch them bring flowers and stuff for Alex and Michael."
Did she know them?
"Not very well," she said.
"Not at all, except for television," said her mother, Pam, who drove from Spartanburg 30 miles away.
A mother's betrayal of her tiny children weighed heavy on everyone here. But after Sunday morning services -- and most everyone in this Bible Belt region goes to church -- there was hardly any talk of revenge as there had been last week.
The services seemed to refocus emotional energies on the boys and their destiny.
"I'm going to the funeral for the babies' sake," said Gloria Jeter, 43, as she left services at the black St. Paul Baptist Church.
"I was hurt [by the allegations of a black gunman in the case], but you've got to forgive and forget," Ms. Jeter said. "She'll [Susan Smith] be punished by God; we don't have to do it."
The Rev. Bob Cato, one of three Methodist pastors who spoke at the funeral, said, "People ask me if I've ever seen God. . . . I have seen his handiwork, and Michael and Alex were his handiwork. And they see God."
Mr. Cato went on to say that he envisions Michael and Alex each sitting on one of God's knees, seeing all those on Earth who loved them enough to come to their funeral.
But looking to comfort those who still ask, "Why?" he said:
"That leaves us in a little town with all the world watching. So how do we cope? By faith. And what is faith? The substance of things hoped for . . . the evidence of things unseen."
Mrs. Smith is accused of driving her car to the isolated John D. Long Lake outside Union, then letting the vehicle roll into the water, where her sons died Oct. 25. She then concocted a cover-up story of a carjacking, police say.