Now, goodbye.

During the next few days, South Carolinians will celebrate and remember the life of Strom Thurmond in rituals that will shed light on the man and the people he served for so many years.

Funerals of prominent Southerners over time have revealed a great deal about how the region's "sense of itself" has changed, said Charles Wilson, the director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.

He expected Thurmond's funeral to follow that rule.

"I would anticipate that it will be a true Southern funeral, with evangelical statements, talk of redemption, with black people testifying as well as whites," Wilson said.

It also will attract an array of politicians. The White House says Vice President Dick Cheney will represent President Bush. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also will attend to pay his respects, said state Sen. John Courson, R-Richland.

Between 4 and 8 p.m. today, Thurmond's body will lie in state in the ornate lobby of the Statehouse, an honor given to only a few leaders.

"This is entirely appropriate given his three-quarters of a century of service," said Walter Edgar, the director of the University of South Carolina's Institute for Southern Studies. "South Carolina has produced some remarkable figures, and Strom Thurmond is certainly one of them."

Other people who have lain in state include: James F. Byrnes, a governor and U.S. Supreme Court justice who died in 1972; Olin D. Johnston, a governor and U.S. senator who defeated Thurmond in a 1950 Senate race and died in 1965; and U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence, who died two years ago.

The public also can pay its respects at the Statehouse from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and 9-11 a.m. Tuesday.

"The idea is to have this for the people," said Courson, a close friend of Thurmond. "He was always for the people, so all of these ceremonies will be open to the public."

Thurmond's casket will be stationed near the statue of John C. Calhoun, a 19th century defender of slavery and states' rights and one of the few South Carolina leaders to rival Thurmond's mark on state and national politics.

About noon Tuesday, a caisson, a two-wheeled cart traditionally used to haul artillery, will carry Thurmond's body about six blocks to First Baptist Church in Columbia for the funeral. Four horses will pull the caisson as a rider on a fifth horse plays a slow drumbeat. Pallbearers will include two members from all five branches of the armed services.

The military themes aren't just for show, given the state's deep military roots and Thurmond's past. On D-Day, Thurmond landed in a glider behind enemy lines, later receiving the Bronze Star "for heroic achievement in action."

"He's highly decorated, a major general in the Army Reserve," Edgar noted, adding that Thurmond was a staunch supporter of the military during his years in the Senate.

Finally, the former senator's body will be taken to the county courthouse in Edgefield in a small motorcade. From there, a horse-drawn caisson will transport the senator's remains to Willowbrook Cemetery, where they will be buried with military honors.

Not since the death in 1998 of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace has the South lost such a seminal public figure, said Wilson, who has written about funerals of prominent Southern leaders.

"When George Wallace died, there was a big funeral in Montgomery, and the story there was about forgiveness and redemption."

Like Thurmond, Wallace was an ardent segregationist who later renounced his segregationist views, and his death also "meant a kind of redemption of the South," Wilson said. "We want to believe we can change."

Thurmond's segregationist rhetoric was just as fiery as Wallace's. When Thurmond ran for president in 1948 as a member of the Dixiecrat party, he said, "I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that there's not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches."

Thurmond eventually changed course and supported civil rights laws and black colleges.

"He did serve his black constituency, and because he remained an active politician for so much longer than Wallace, his change is easier to believe than Wallace's," Wilson said.

Because of this change, and perhaps because of the way society views its elected leaders, it's unlikely that Thurmond's funeral will generate the kind of emotional outpouring that has accompanied those of some prominent Southern figures.

Calhoun's death in 1850 was a major national event. Women in North Carolina knelt as his remains passed by on the way to Charleston. Throughout the Holy City, homes were draped in black, and his funeral was said to be the largest gathering of people that the city had ever seen.

Calhoun had a more potent intellect than Thurmond, some historians say.

"While I profoundly disagree with Calhoun's philosophy, he was brilliant, a seminal figure of the 19th century," said Dan Carter, a USC historian. "He outlined to an extraordinary degree a way of looking at the world that had a profound impact on his generation and generations to come. We can still read Calhoun 160 years later with profit because of the rigor of his intelligence."

Thurmond probably won't be remembered in this way, Carter said.

Thurmond's strengths were more practical. His office built a strong reputation for helping constituents. On a larger stage, he capitalized on his popularity by helping turn the South from its traditional Democratic loyalties to the Republican Party.

"His decision to switch to the Republican Party showed that you weren't going to be hit by a lightning bolt by Jehovah," Carter said.

In recent decades, the most prominent funerals in the South have been for cultural and social leaders, not elected leaders, Wilson said.

Hank Williams' death in 1953 created "the greatest emotional orgy in the city's history since the inauguration of Jefferson Davis," said a reporter in Montgomery.

More than 150,000 were drawn to the 1968 funeral of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta.

In 1977, a day after Elvis Presley died, 80,000 people gathered outside Graceland, his Memphis, Tenn., home. Tens of thousands massed for the funeral, during which Presley "lay under a crystal chandelier, near a glass statue of a nude woman, surrounded by plastic palms, black velveteen paintings, and scarlet drapes with gold tassels," according to an essay Wilson wrote about prominent Southern funerals.

Southern death ceremonies, Wilson said, "show that the region's culture has evolved from a political military identity in the days of (Robert E.) Lee and (Jefferson) Davis, to a cultural identity today."

Thurmond, who was born just 37 years after Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, straddled the old world and the new, and the funeral ceremonies during the next few days will reflect that link.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.