At Ivana Trump's funeral, a golden coffin and the Secret Service

"People loved Ivana."

In death, as in life, her famous ex-husband hovered over Ivana Trump's story.

Wednesday afternoon at Mrs. Trump's funeral at a Catholic church on the Upper East Side, former President Donald J. Trump, accompanied by his current wife, Melania, was there, seated in the front row, in front of their three children: Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.

The Trump Organization had handled the funeral arrangements, and the coffin had a golden hue. The Secret Service stood ready.

Outside the church, St. Vincent Ferrer, photographers and a hundred onlookers stood behind barricades. Maybe the only sign someone was waving said, "PRAYERS AND CONDOLENCES OVERCOME FAMILY." GOD BLESS YOU AND PROTECT YOU. »

Inside, the church was half full. There were plenty of Hermès bags, but few bold names from the golden slice of Manhattan society the couple had inhabited in the 1980s and 1990s.

Most of the talk about Mrs Trump, who died last week at 73 in her New York apartment, focused on her tireless drive, shaped by her childhood in Czechoslovakia behind the Iron Curtain. Those who praised him also spoke of the friendship Mrs Trump and her ex-husband had managed to forge, despite the bitter tabloid divorce. (Mrs. Trump was married briefly and then widowed before her marriage to Mr. Trump, and the two husbands who followed him predeceased her.)

Her children have offered a loving glimpse into her energetic parenting style.

In a speech, her 38-year-old son Eric described his mother as the embodiment of the American dream, something like a mix of Joan Rivers and Claudia Schiffer, he said.

"She had intelligence, she had beauty and she had courage he said, claiming that she had won the "heart and mind of every person in the United States on the Home Shopping Network and QVC."

He added: "She still holds all the sales records. People adored Ivana."

As a parent, he says, she "ruled with a fist of iron and a heart of gold."

These two things were the subject of much of Donald Trump Jr.'s speech, which followed soon after.

"In the tumultuous times of the past few years, with all the attacks we've faced," said Mr. Trump, 44, "she was the first person to call and see if I maybe wanted, or if I needed, to go back and live with her. This call was both the sweetest and most emasculating thing ever. And she could do it with the best of them, and usually it was on purpose."

When he was a little kid, Mr. Trump said, he went with his family to the Hamptons. There, he acted at Gosman's (Montauk's best-known seafood restaurant) in a way that "exceeded the limits" of everyone's patience. he said, took him to the restroom and showed him "what Eastern European discipline really was," telling him, "And if you cry, we'll come back here and do it again."

Young Mr. Trump – whose fiancée, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, sat across the aisle from him – says another...