Going all the way back to Wiliam Henry Harrison's ceremony in 1841, presidential funerals have
held a special place in American society.
Here's what happens when U.S. citizens mourn their Commander-in-Chief.
A presidential funeral is intended as an honor, both to the office and the officeholder being
put to rest.
They also function as the nation's last connection with the departed president.
But it isn't an honor or a conversation that presidents or former presidents are obligated
to undertake.
Presidents can and have opted to forego elements of a traditional state funeral, and in some
cases, to do without one altogether.
Gerald Ford needed convincing as to the importance of some traditions, and modified several of
the ones he retained.
He augmented his lying in state by having his body rest in both chambers of Congress
and relented on his desired motorcade through Alexandria, Virginia, for the more traditional
carriage trek down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Richard Nixon went further in departing from the standard ceremony.
His funeral was held in the Nixon Library in California, rather than Washington, D.C.
It couldn't be described as low-key.
Reverend Billy Graham officiated, then-president Bill Clinton delivered one of the five eulogies,
and four other former presidents attended along with Clinton.
But it was, by Nixon's own wish, completely removed from the nation's capital.
The presidential funeral as a formal occasion of state is a relatively recent development
for America.
At the nation's founding, there was no set protocol for the government to mark the passing
of noted figures, let alone presidents.
When George Washington died he was buried at his home, Mount Vernon, in a private ceremony.
Not that Washington's death went unmarked by the United States.
Washington's family involved his Masonic lodge in preparing rather elaborate trappings for
a private funeral, and Mount Vernon details the honors and tributes paid to Washington
away from his home.
The tradition of private funerals at home endured after Washington for some time.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who both died on July 4, 1826, followed Washington's
lead, though their funerals had very different characters.
Though Adams asked for a simple service and his family declined funding from the state
of Massachusetts, his passing was marked by bells, cannons, and 4,000 mourners, while
Jefferson's family sent out no invitations to his funeral.
While crowds gathered to see the internment, the service itself was conducted by a small
group of relatives and friends.
America didn't see a president pass away in office until William Henry Harrison in 1841.
President for only a month, the shortest tenure in history, Harrison was still head of state
when he died, and it was felt that a public show of mourning was due to the office.
The service itself was a relatively small affair, attended by invitation in the East
Room of the White House.
But the mansion's interior was shrouded in black, and 30 days of tributes followed before
Harrison's body returned to his home state of Ohio.
While lacking many elements of the modern ceremony, Harrison's did set the precedent
for a state funeral in honor of a president.
A public show of mourning in Washington, D.C. for a president who died while in office began
in the mid-1800s, but it was with Abraham Lincoln that presidential funerals became
national events by modern standards.
Lincoln's assassination after the Civil War was a devastating blow for the United States,
and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton determined that the country would have a chance to say
their farewells.
Over the initial wishes of Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, Stanton planned an elaborate
route for Lincoln's body to take through America, reversing the president's journey to Washington
ahead of his inauguration.
After two days of lying in state at the Capitol, Lincoln's body was loaded onto the presidential
railroad car, bound for Springfield, Illinois, with stops at every major city along the way.
In 10 of the cities, Lincoln's body was put on public display, and after reaching Springfield,
it spent several years moving around resting places.
For an idea of the scale of mourning that marked Lincoln's death, consider the numbers
presented by the National Museum of American History.
Lincoln was killed on April 15, 1865.
By April 19, around 25 million Americans across the country took part in memorial services,
with 120,000 in New York alone.
The first state funeral for a president, held for William Henry Harrison, took its cues
from the royal funerals of Europe.
That level of grandeur was aspired to for some time afterwards.
Black drapes adorned the White House, horses drew a handsomely dressed carriage bearing
the coffin, and fleets of dignitaries walked in processions filled with salutes.
For one of the grandest of all, that of Abraham Lincoln, the journey from Washington, D.C.
to the president's home state involved public viewings of the body in major cities along
the way.
With the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, the first president of the 20th century
to die in office, the character of the presidential funeral began to shift.
The body still lay in state in the Capitol, and there was still a large procession to
see it off to Ohio.
But the decorations in the White House were floral, and considerably scaled back from
past presidential funerals.
Further simplification followed with the funerals of Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt,
and these somber but comparatively modest examples have guided the modern ceremony.
The White House Historical Association suggests that these changes were part of a broader
move away from pomp in the 20th century.
"And officers and men of the mighty armed forces which he led, march in slow, measured
tread in Franklin Roosevelt's honor."
The United States saw a study in contrast when two presidential funerals were held within
a month of one another.
In December 1972, Harry S. Truman died at 88.
Truman had approved plans for a five-day state funeral, but after his death, his widow amended
the arrangements in favor of a two-day private ceremony held at the Truman Memorial Library
in Independence, Missouri.
Elements that had become standard in presidential funerals, including a horse with an empty
saddle and an elaborate military procession, were replaced with 20 cars.
After the new year, Lyndon B Johnson passed away, and there was a two-day overlap between
the public mourning periods for Truman and Johnson.
The latter opted for a more traditional state funeral.
His body was flown from Texas to Washington to lie in state at the Capitol, with the arrival
marked by a flyover by air force planes.
The service was held on January 25, 1973.
Among the elements retained by Johnson that Truman had done without was the horse-drawn
carriage bearing his coffin.
After his passing was observed in the nation's capital, Johnson's body returned to Texas
for final burial.
Among the many heavy responsibilities that come with the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
is the need to plan your own funeral.
One of the first things incoming presidents are asked to do is weigh in on what services
and ceremonies they would like included or excluded in the event of their death, so that
the Military District of Washington can have a plan of action ready to go.
Besides allowing the chain of command to be ready in the event of an emergency, this arrangement
lets a president personalize their final departure from American public life.
Sometimes, these plans can come to light before a president is laid to rest.
In 2006, Jimmy Carter shared a small example of his funeral arrangements with Deseret News.
Carter said that, after a service in Washington, he would like his final resting place to be
his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
"So, we have to be prepared for that."
A prominent location of modern presidential funerals has been the Washington National
Cathedral.
The church's official website states:
"Washington National Cathedral has been the location of funeral and memorial services
for nearly all U.S. presidents since ... 1893."
That distinction between funeral and memorial services is important.
Only four presidents have had funeral services conducted there, and only one — Woodrow
Wilson — is buried in the cathedral.
But memorial services have been held there since the death of Warren G Harding in 1923.
The four presidents to have funeral services hosted by the cathedral are Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and George H.W.
Bush.
Besides Harding, four other presidents have been honored with memorial services — William
Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S Truman, and Richard Nixon.
The Episcopal bishop of Washington, whose seat the cathedral is, also provided an address
to mark William McKinley's death and officiated the White House funeral service of Franklin
D. Roosevelt.
To mark the death of the Catholic John F Kennedy, the cathedral was open overnight to allow
mourners space to pray.
One aspect of the presidential funeral is shared by ceremonies throughout the world:
the 21-gun salute.
This long-used symbol of respect is brought out on many occasions.
Arlington National Cemetery lists the 4th of July, President's Day, Memorial Day, and
George Washington's birthday as days to fire the guns, along with visits by foreign heads
of state and presidents, sitting and former.
The salute is also sounded at noon during presidential funerals.
The origins of the 21-gun salute can be traced to an ancient custom of signaling peace by
rendering weapons harmless, a practice that predates gunpowder and seems to have been
observed worldwide.
As cannons became prevalent in the 14th century, warships would fire their single-shot guns
to show they meant no harm, and fortifications at harbors would do the same.
The number 21 derives from the original 7-gun salute used by the earliest cannon-bearing
warships, which itself appears to stem from symbology linked to the Bible and astrology.
The firing of 21 guns was the traditional salute among European powers by the 19th century.
In the United States, the number of guns used to honor a president was initially tied to
the number of states currently in the union.
While the U.S. adopted the 21 number for presidential salutes by 1842, it didn't commit to the same
for international honors until 1875, or to non-presidential domestic occasions until
1890.
How does a state funeral get underway?
As with any funeral, it begins with death.
Traditionally, the family of the deceased president will use their office or press connections
to issue a public statement on their passing.
But while presidents are invited to have a hand in planning their funerals while they're
alive, their death does not automatically trigger preparations for official state services
and ceremonies.
To commence a presidential state funeral takes a president — a living president.
"Whether we're a Democrat or Republican, uh, we care deeply about this country."
After receiving word of the death of their predecessor, the sitting president is responsible
for formally proclaiming it to the nation at large.
Unless a state funeral has been declined, the sitting president must also authorize
the Department of Defense to begin putting it together.
The Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, the military element also responsible for
presidential inaugurations, handles the operation.
With various services and ceremonies, spread over three stages in multiple states and cities,
a presidential funeral can be a lengthy affair.
The White House Historical Association gives five days as the traditional number.
But among a sitting president's obligations to their predecessor is the designation of
a national day of mourning, a specific date marked by the closure of non-essential government
services, and a show of tributes to the deceased.
The date of a national day of mourning for a former president is traditionally the same
day that funeral services are held in Washington, D.C., a practice dating to Franklin D. Roosevelt's
death, according to a guide published by the U.S. Army.
In the event no service is held in the capital, the day of mourning is designated for the
date that the president is interred in their final resting place.
As of late 2022, the most recent presidential day of mourning was December 5, 2018, for
George H.W.
Bush.
The first was Franklin D. Roosevelt's, on April 14, 1945.