Biden praises Feinstein as defender of American values at San Francisco memorial

Late California senator honoured as 'tough, prepared, rigorous and compassionate' by US President

An image of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein is displayed during the memorial service for her outside City Hall in San Francisco on October 5. AP

US President Joe Biden praised the late Senator Dianne Feinstein on Thursday as a dear friend and a woman of deep integrity who fought to protect what was important to America: freedom, civil liberties, security and the Constitution.

“She was always tough, prepared, rigorous, compassionate,” Mr Biden said in recorded video played at Feinstein's memorial outside San Francisco City Hall.

"She always served the people of California and our nation for the right reasons."

About 1,500 invited guests were at the private service, where two large screens showed photos of Feinstein over the years.

Guests seated in white chairs sweltered on an unseasonably hot day as the US Navy Blue Angels flight team soared overhead, occasionally interrupting speakers with the roar of their jets.

The flight demonstration squadron is in the city as part of Fleet Week, an annual San Francisco celebration started by Feinstein in 1981 when she was mayor.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the gathering, along with Feinstein's granddaughter, Eileen Mariano, who spoke for her family.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, and former governor Jerry Brown were in the audience.

The service marks the end of two days of events in the city that launched Feinstein’s political career.

On Wednesday, hundreds of mourners streamed into City Hall to pay their respects, honouring Feinstein as fearless, smart and the glue who kept the city together after two shocking political assassinations.

Many said they had never met her but wanted to honour an indefatigable public servant who fought to level the playing field for women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and racial minorities.

Feinstein died early on Friday at her home in Washington, of natural causes, said Adam Russell, a spokesman for her office. She was 90.

Feinstein was one of California's first two female US senators, a job she won alongside Barbara Boxer in 1992.

As a centrist Democrat, Feinstein was criticised by people on the left, including for her support for the death penalty, and in her later years, for working with Republicans.

Feinstein spent much of her career in the US Senate but will be known as the forever mayor of San Francisco, a role she inherited in tragedy.

She was president of the Board of Supervisors in November 1978 when a former supervisor assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay supervisor, at City Hall.

Feinstein, who found Milk’s body, became acting mayor and won election twice to serve as mayor until 1988.

“She championed and fought for the rights of so many people,” San Francisco native Cari Donovan said. “I’m so grateful. And I really just wanted her family to know how much she meant to me.”

The social worker said she talked to her daughter about the battles Feinstein fought so that younger generations of women could dream bigger: “She was a lioness.”