Miscellaneous Musings on Presidential Funerals

Although I didn't plan to, I ended up seeing a fair amount of TV coverage of President Ford's funeral. I guess it's hard to miss, since it seemed to go on for weeks. Same thing happened when Mr. Reagan left this world a few years ago. At that time I recall thinking the whole event was excessive.

It got me thinking...who was the most recent president to die (other than the disgraced Mr. Nixon) and what was his funeral like? It's hard to believe, but if my research is correct, it was Lyndon Johnson in 1973. The picture above is from his funeral. Here's a bit of the obituary from the New York Times:

SAN ANTONIO, Tex., Jan. 22--Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States, died today of an apparent heart attack suffered at his ranch in Johnson City, Tex.

The 64-year-old Mr. Johnson, whose history of heart illness began in 1955, was pronounced dead on arrival at 4:33 P.M. central time at San Antonio International Airport, where he had been flown in a family plane on the way to Brooke Army Medical Center here.

A spokesman at Austin said that Mr. Johnson's funeral would probably be held Thursday at the National City Christian Church in Washington. He said the body would lie in state at the Johnson Library in Austin from noon tomorrow until 8 A.M. Wednesday, with an honor guard, and then would be taken to Washington, where it will lie in state at the Capitol rotunda until the funeral. Mr. Johnson will be buried at the L.B.J. Ranch.

Death came to the nation's only surviving former President as the nation observed a period of mourning proclaimed less than a month ago for former President Harry S. Truman.

I thought the last sentence rather interesting, no? And I was very surprised that LBJ was ony 64 when he died - in fact, he looked like he was 104.

OK, so I guess the funerals are as they should be - with all the pomp and circumstance we've come to expect in the services for these last two presidents.

So, having settled that critical conundrum, can you imagine anything stranger than being a former president during these events? When you pay your respects at the Capitol, you know that you too will be lying in state there. You must wonder about your own funeral, although since these memorials are planned years in advance, this must be an easy transition to make. You can just imagine Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton eyeing each other and thinking who would be next. Every cough or stumble might signal the upcoming honoree.

And what about the Clintons, especially if Hillary ever becomes president herself? Chelsea must quake in her boots thinking that she potentially could have to endure going through two of these events, all by herself.

Oh well, let's hope it's a long time until the next one. (Another Googled fact is that, yes, Lady Bird Johnson is still living, at the age of 95 years old.)

Photo credit: Marion S. Trikosko; link