COLUMBIA --
Funeral arrangements for Strom Thurmond, the nation's
longest-serving U.S. Senator and one of the most prominent political
figures in the history of South Carolina, will stretch over three
days beginning with today's visitation at the State-house.
Many events will be open to the public because that's the way the
late senator would have wanted them, said state Sen. John Courson,
R-Columbia.
Vice President Dick Cheney will represent President Bush at
Tuesday's funeral, the White House says. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld also will come to Columbia's First Baptist Church to pay
his respects to the 100-year-old former Republican senator, added
Courson, Thurmond's former campaign manager who is helping the
family plan the funeral.
Courson referred questions about the funeral's program, including
who might speak, to Shellhouse Funeral Home in Aiken. The funeral
home refused to provide details Saturday afternoon.
Public tributes for Thurmond, who died Thursday night at the
Edgefield County Hospital, begin with today's visitation for friends
and family from 4 to 8 p.m. Thurmond will then lie in state on the
second floor of the Statehouse on Monday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and
on Tuesday from 9 to 11 a.m. Both events are open to the public.
Thurmond's body will then be loaded on a caisson for the
four-block trip from the Statehouse to First Baptist Church, where
the funeral is set to begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Organizers say portions of Sumter, Gervais and Hampton streets in
downtown Columbia will be blocked for parts of Tuesday.
A funeral procession will then take Thurmond the approximately 60
miles to his hometown of Edgefield, where he will be buried in a
family plot at Willowbrook Cemetery.
Locally, residents can pay respects to Thurmond and his family
through a memorial book that will be available Monday at the Rock
Hill office of U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. The office, located
in Suite 110 at 140 E. Main St., will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5
p.m., said Hamp Atkins, chairman of the York County Republican
Party. Graham will deliver the book to Thurmond's family at the
funeral, Atkins said.
