Graham's body to lie in honor at Capitol

The hearse carrying the body of the Rev. Billy Graham arrives Thursday at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, N.C.
The hearse carrying the body of the Rev. Billy Graham arrives Thursday at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, N.C.

The body of the late Rev. Billy Graham will lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol, congressional leaders announced Thursday, with the evangelist becoming the first religious leader to be honored by the nation in that way.

Graham, who died Wednesday at age 99, will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda on Feb. 28 and March 1, according to the offices of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The two leaders will lead a memorial service once Graham's casket arrives.

Congress has held such ceremonies just 32 times in American history, beginning with Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1852 and most recently with the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, in 2012. The remains of unknown soldiers from World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War have earned the honor, as did 10 U.S. presidents -- from Abraham Lincoln to Gerald Ford. Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the planner of the District of Columbia; civil-rights activist Rosa Parks; and former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover are among the notable names who have also lain in honor.

Congressional honors for Graham will come during a week of events to mark his death. He will lie in repose Monday and Tuesday at the Graham Family Homeplace at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. From there, his body will be taken to Washington.

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An invitation-only funeral is scheduled for noon March 2 in Charlotte. "America's Pastor" will be laid to rest at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at his library*, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007.

The Graham family has invited President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and all living former presidents -- Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- to attend. It was unclear whether any of the former presidents have accepted the invitation.

His tombstone will read "Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The North Carolina-born farm boy reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies -- or what he called "crusades" -- and his pioneering use of television.

Graham built evangelicalism into a force that rivaled liberal Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in the U.S., and he became a confidant of presidents and other leaders.

His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one.

Graham's son the Rev. Franklin Graham toured the prison in 2005 and said he was so moved by the simple boxes lined with a mattress pad with a wooden cross nailed to the top that he asked for ones for his mother and father.

The funeral at Graham's Charlotte headquarters will be held in a tent in the main parking lot of the library in tribute to the tent revivals in Los Angeles in 1949 that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark DeMoss said.

[PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Read about Graham’s visits to Arkansas]

Around Montreat, where Graham lived, he was a humble presence known to slip quietly into a local church for Sunday services.

Shelby Crump of Starr, S.C., was visiting the town when she heard the news of the evangelist's death.

"A lot of people were saved through his preaching," she said. "I'm saddened. Not many like him left."

Information for this article was contributed by Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post and by Jonathan Drew and Jeffrey Collins of The Associated Press.

A Section on 02/23/2018

*CORRECTION: The Rev. Billy Graham’s body will be buried at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. A previous version of this incorrectly reported Graham’s burial site.

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