Hail to the Grief: 7 Interesting Facts About Presidential Funerals
When a revered head of state dies, it’s not only the leader’s family and friends who mourn the loss but the entire country they served.
Modern presidential funerals in the U.S. reflect this sentiment.
Currently, the procedures for when a former (or sitting) United States president passes away are governed by a set of laws put in place in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
Nonetheless, these procedures were informed by hundreds of years of tradition and history of presidential funerals going all the way back to George Washington’s passing in 1799.
Here are seven fascinating facts and intriguing historical accounts of presidential funerals, providing both context for how we arrived at today’s traditions and a greater look into the nuances of memorials for world leaders.
The First Presidential Funeral
Washington’s passing was a rather sudden, unexpected shock to the nascent nation. He died at the age of 67 from an ailment that had only presented itself the morning of the day he died — meaning his death was wholly unexpected to both those closest to him and the nation as a whole.
On his deathbed, Washington unintentionally began one of the central tenets of presidential funerals — the concept of lying in repose — when he requested his family and close confidants “not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead.”
Neither the Capitol Rotunda nor the White House was constructed at the time, so instead Washington was laid in repose at the long portico of his Mount Vernon estate. Funeral services for Washington were relatively modest and organized by his local Freemasons lodge.
Due to technological limitations, news of his death spread relatively slowly, but as people learned of their great leader's passing, communities around the country held mock funerals and memorial services to honor him and his contributions.
Lincoln & Kennedy
Despite being assassinated almost 100 years apart, the sudden, violent deaths of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy (JFK) as well as their subsequent memorial services have a surprising amount in common and are inextricably linked in the historical record.
Notably, both presidents were assassinated by gunshot during times of intense political tension in the United States: Lincoln was struggling to reunite the country in the aftermath of the Civil War, while Kennedy was dealing with inflamed racial tensions, the beginning of the Cold War, and the emerging conflict in Vietnam, among other issues.
Similarly, both presidents enjoyed considerable popularity (albeit with the caveat of also having a small, but fiercely critical group of political opponents) at the time of their deaths.
They also both died during a period of significant technological advancement in nationwide communication, with Lincoln dying right as national telegraph networks were put into place and Kennedy during the proliferation of television sets in American homes.
These advancements meant that the news of their deaths spread faster than ever before — most Americans were aware of Lincoln’s death within a day of his passing and, in the case of JFK, people learned that he had been shot in Dallas mere minutes after it had occurred and then waited in real time to hear confirmation of his death.
Due to his massive popularity and the suddenness of his death, Lincoln was given the grandest presidential funeral to occur to date. He was the first president to publicly lie in repose in the East Room of the White House, to have a large funeral procession down Pennsylvania Avenue, and then finally, to lie in state* on a specially built catafalque (an ornate casket stand) for public viewing in the Capitol Rotunda.
Upon his assassination in 1963, JFK had no plan in place for his funeral or burial. These decisions were therefore left to his wife, Jacquline Kennedy, who requested that his services be as similar to Abraham Lincoln’s as possible.
White House staff and presidential historians immediately sprung into action after hearing her request and spent the next 24 hours scouring all historical records of Lincoln’s funeral and dutifully recreating his service to the best of their ability.
They were able to recreate the funeral with much success and replicating these features of Lincoln’s funeral are where many of the modern state funeral traditions for presidents originated, most notably the concept of lying in state in the Capitol for public viewing with their casket on Lincoln’s catafalque.
*Note that in the United States it is only referred to as “lying in state” when the body of the deceased leader is displayed in the Capitol Rotunda, for any other location they are “lying in repose.”
All Modern Presidents Pre-Plan Upon Entering Office
In the wake of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the federal government firmed up the procedures and processes that are to occur following the death of a sitting or former president.
Among these changes was a codification of the rules of ceremony for state funerals and an expectation that all new presidents would pre-arrange and make their final wishes known upon entering office.
For example, Jimmy Carter (the oldest living president at time of publication) currently has a 400+ page funeral plan on file with the Military District of Washington (the part of the federal government responsible for state funerals). The plan includes a service at the National Cathedral in D.C., lying in repose in his home state of Georgia, and final interment and burial at his family estate.
To be clear, presidents are not required to have state funerals, and only 13 have opted for or received a full state funeral:
William Henry Harrison (the first president to die in office)
Zachary Taylor
Abraham Lincoln
James Garfield
William McKinley
Warren Harding
William Howard Taft
John F. Kennedy
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lyndon B. Johnson
Ronald Reagan
Gerald Ford
George H.W. Bush
Some of the hundreds of decisions presidents are asked to make while planning include: the location of their final resting place, where and how long they wish to lie in repose in their home state, locations where their funeral procession is to pass by, and specific songs they would like played at the service.
A Quiet Place for Silent Cal
Our 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, who was often referred to as “Silent Cal” for his reserved and soft-spoken demeanor, was the last president to be buried in a public cemetery.
His final resting place is at Plymouth Notch Cemetery in Vermont.
All presidents since Coolidge have either been buried at Arlington National Cemetery, their presidential library, or their family estate.
A Modest Funeral For An Important Man
Despite being revered in history for his leadership during both the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) did not have a state funeral. This was because both his family and administration felt it would be uncouth to hold a large, fancy celebration while WW2 was still ongoing and American soldiers were dying overseas.
Instead, his family and other high-level government officials held a private service for him in the East Room of the White House, and flags were lowered to half-staff at the Capitol and the White House.
His remains then traveled by train to his Springwood Estate in New York where he was buried.
Overlapping Periods of Mourning
When Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) passed away in 1973, it was in the wake of Harry Truman’s death roughly a month earlier.
Oddly enough, both men had the distinction of becoming president after the sitting president died in office, with the vacancy leading to their immediate inauguration as president (a practice later codified in the 25th Amendment).
Truman and his family decided not to hold a state funeral, while LBJ did choose to have an official state funeral ceremony that included both lying in state at the Capitol and a flyover done by the United States Air Force.
Unique Arrangements for A Unique President
When Gerald Ford became president in 1974, he did so with the unique distinction of being the only Vice President, and then President, to reach these offices without being subject to a national vote.
This is because he was elevated from House Minority Leader (a position he was elected to by a single congressional district) to vice president in 1973 after the resignation of sitting Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was forced to resign over his involvement with abuse of power and tax fraud in his prior government position. Then when Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency over the Watergate Scandal in 1974, Ford was automatically elevated again to president.
Despite this line of succession being firmly codified in the 25th Amendment (which was adopted in 1967), Ford was reportedly very self-conscious and modest about the fact that he had never been elected to the office, and at first, was reluctant to agree to any sort of state funeral as he felt it was undeserved.
Nonetheless, Ford did agree to a state funeral, albeit a slightly modified take on the traditional procedures that he felt better reflected his record of service to the country.
For example, instead of a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, Ford opted instead for his procession to pass by the Alexandria, VA residence he had lived in while working in Washington and the World War II Memorial as a tribute to his service in the army and his fellow service members who had died overseas.
Ford was also incredibly proud of his involvement with the Boy Scouts of America and invited a select group of scouts to attend his services in Washington.
Conclusion
The history of presidential state funerals in the United States is rich and complex. The codified procedures the federal government currently uses were developed within the context of hundreds of years of history and tradition with elements of funeral services conducted in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries still in play to this day.
Nonetheless, American political traditions are constantly evolving and adapting to the ever-changing world; who knows what presidential funerals will be like in 50 years.
