A caisson team will carry the remains of the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham around the Statehouse and up Main Street to First Baptist Church on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. This photo shows the arrival of Sen. Clementa Pinckney's remains by a caisson team to the Statehouse on June 24, 2015. (File photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — Funeral services in Washington for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham will be closed to the public, but people are invited to pay their respects during a procession in South Carolina.
A short ceremony July 28 inside the U.S. Capitol, which the public can watch via livestream, will be followed by an invitation-only funeral service at 2 p.m. inside the Washington National Cathedral, the senator’s office announced Tuesday.
Participants in the church tribute will include President Donald Trump. That service can be watched on a YouTube page for the memorial. Graham’s remains will be flown to South Carolina that evening, according to the released details.
Services in Columbia will start at roughly 10:45 a.m. July 29 with the State Guard caisson team carrying his remains from the south side of Statehouse grounds to the north side (the front). A pause in the presentation will be followed by a F-16 flyover of jets from McEntire Joint National Guard Base.
The caisson will then proceed up Main Street to First Baptist Church, about a half-mile away. The seating for the service there is first-come, first-served.
The funeral service in his native Pickens County later that day will be a private family burial.
In Washington, a military honor unit will carry Graham’s remains into the Rotunda ahead of the ceremony, in recognition of his decades of service in the Air Force.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said a special ceremony inside the Capitol is a fitting way for his friends and colleagues to say their final goodbyes.
“For so many of us in the Senate and the House, myself included, Lindsey was more than a colleague, he was a friend,” the South Dakota Republican said in a statement. “From the military to state politics to decades of representing South Carolinians in Congress, Lindsey dedicated his life to giving back through public service.”
Graham died late July 11 at age 71 from a ruptured aorta, according to preliminary findings from the medical examiner’s office in Washington.
His sister, Darline Graham, was sworn in last Tuesday as Gov. Henry McMaster’s appointee to fulfill her brother’s fourth term, which expires in January. South Carolina’s newest senator said Monday she’s decided to join the race to replace her brother on November ballots as the GOP nominee for the next six-year term.
“I am grateful to all those who have come together to help honor and remember Lindsey,” she said in the announcement of the memorial services. Her statement went on to thank people in Washington and Columbia for “going above and beyond to ensure these will be honorable tributes to Lindsey.”
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
