The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Remembering Senator Robert C. Byrd

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  • Sen. Robert C. Byrd speaks March 15, 2002, at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy near Beaver.

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June 30, 2010

Byrd to lie in Senate chamber where he served

Obama, Biden to attend service in Charleston; Byrd’s body also to lie in repose in state Capitol Rotunda

By Laurie Kellman Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Charleston on Friday to attend memorial services for Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

Byrd died Monday at age 92. The West Virginia Democrat was the longest-serving senator in history.

Byrd’s body will lie in repose inside the U.S. Senate chamber on Thursday before being flown to West Virginia for a public memorial service Friday.

Byrd’s final appearance on the Senate floor, where he became famous for soaring oratory and record-setting speeches, will be as historic as the senator himself. A senator’s casket last lay in repose there in 1959, the year Byrd joined the chamber. He was the longest-serving member of Congress ever and was third in line to the presidency.

From Washington to Byrd’s beloved West Virginia, lawmakers, aides, law enforcement officials and journalists spent much of Tuesday on preparations for the event. The Senate was expected to approve a resolution to allow Byrd’s casket to lie in repose within the chamber.

Byrd’s journey to his final resting place near his wife, Erma, stretches from Washington to Charleston to Arlington, Va., for burial on Tuesday.

Byrd’s office said the hearse carrying the senator’s casket will arrive at the Senate steps at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday, where an honor guard will carry it into the Senate chamber. There, it will be placed on the same catafalque built to support President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin and has been used for those of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan and others.

At 10:15 a.m. the public galleries above the Senate floor will be opened for viewing while Byrd’s family receives members of the House and Senate. Chaplain Barry Black will offer prayer at 10:30 a.m., according to the schedule.

Six hours after the casket’s arrival, Byrd will leave the Senate for the last time. A hearse will take the casket to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for a flight to Charleston.

Gov. Joe Manchin’s office said Byrd’s body will lie in repose in the state Capitol’s Rotunda from 9 p.m. Thursday to 9 a.m. Friday. The public will be permitted to pay respects to Byrd during the 12-hour viewing.

Back in Washington, there is ample precedent for memorial ceremonies in the Senate chamber, but none has occurred since North Dakota Republican William Langer’s funeral in 1959, according to the Senate Historian’s Office.

Including Langer, 46 senators have lain in repose in the Senate chamber. One additional funeral, the first, was held there for a New Yorker who never was a senator: George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson’s second vice president, lay in repose on April 21, 1812.

Others include South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun in 1850, Kentucky’s Henry Clay in 1852 and Wisconsin’s Joseph McCarthy in 1957.

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Remembering Senator Robert C. Byrd
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  • SLIDESHOWS - Senator Robert C. Byrd

     

    Click HERE to see a slideshow of Byrd's casket being placed in the Senate chamber Thursday morning.

    Click HERE to see a slideshow of preparations before Byrd's arrival in Charleston.

    Click HERE to see a slideshow of Byrd's last visit to West Virginia.

    Click HERE to see a slideshow of Byrd's funeral in Arlington, Va.

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