Nancy and Ronald Reagan walk with their dog Rex, a King Charles spaniel, on the White House lawn during the Reagan presidency. The former first lady will be buried beside her husband today in California.

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Nancy Reagan called her husband’s presidential library “the shining city on the hill,” using a phrase that President Reagan had borrowed from history to describe his aspirations for the nation.

Inseparable in life, they will be reunited again on that hilltop, side by side.

The former first lady will be buried beside her “Ronnie” today at the library they loved, after being mourned and celebrated by family and hundreds of friends from Hollywood, Washington and beyond in a private service.

She was “just a beautiful lady,” said John Sandoval, who with his wife, mother and infant daughter joined a crowd of over 1,000 Thursday at the library to see the flower-draped casket.

“I think it was just the unity they shared through his governorship, through his presidency, that brought people together,” Sandoval added.

Forecasters warned that Thursday’s brilliant skies could be replaced by thunderstorms and wind. A tent was erected over the site of the service.

The sprawling, Spanish Mission-style library is located between the Reagan’s post-White House home in the upscale Bel Air section of Los Angeles and Rancho del Cielo, the “ranch in the sky” where the Reagans spent their leisure time, sometimes on horseback, in the rugged mountains near Santa Barbara.

The guest list for the funeral tells a story about their lives, which stretched from Hollywood’s Golden Age to the California statehouse during Reagan’s time as governor to the Washington Beltway.

Four of the five living first ladies and relatives of every president dating to John Kennedy were expected to attend.

It will bring together Democrat and Republican, an unusual tableau at a time of deep division in Washington and the 2016 campaign trail.

Hillary Clinton plans to take a break from the presidential campaign to attend, and other politicians on the list cover the political spectrum, from Newt Gingrich to Nancy Pelosi.

Nancy Reagan’s two children, Patti Davis and Ronald Prescott Reagan, will be among the speakers at the funeral, which will include choirs and a Marine Corps band.

James Baker, who served in the Reagan administration, and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw also will give remarks during the private ceremony.