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| A Sept. 1966 edition of LIFE Magazine bearing the likeness of John Glenn rests in a showcase at the John & Annie Glenn Museum, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, in New Concord, Ohio. Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth, piloting Friendship 7 around the planet three times in 1962. Glenn, as a U.S. senator at age 77, also became the oldest person in space by orbiting Earth with six astronauts aboard shuttle Discovery in 1998. |
COLUMBUS,
Ohio (AP) -- John Glenn will lie in state in Ohio's capitol
building before a celebration of his life of military and government
service and two history-making voyages into space.
The
public viewing at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Ohio
State University's Mershon Auditorium are planned for late next week.
The dates and times were being worked out Friday, said Hank Wilson, of
the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. Statehouse officials meet
Monday to authorize the public viewing.
Glenn,
who died Thursday at age 95, was the first American to orbit the Earth,
in 1962, and was the oldest man in space, at age 77 in 1998. A U.S.
Marine and combat pilot, he also served as a Democratic U.S. senator,
representing Ohio, for more than two decades.
Democratic
President Barack Obama on Friday ordered flags at federal buildings and
on ships around the world flown at half-staff until sunset on the day
of Glenn's internment. Glenn is to be buried at Arlington National
Cemetery near Washington, D.C.
Tributes from the nation's leaders and others continued Friday.
"Throughout
his life, Senator John Glenn embodied the right stuff," Defense
Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. "Our military in particular
benefited from his courage and dedication. ... But just as important as
what John Glenn accomplished is how he accomplished it: with a
combination of fierce determination and profound humility, and always
with integrity."
Glenn was a fighter pilot in
World War II and Korea and served on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, among other Washington service.
In
his eastern Ohio hometown of New Concord, the John and Annie Glenn
Museum, usually available this time of year only for special tours and
events, opened Friday with free admission.
Char
Lyn Grujoski, of Connersville, Indiana, stopped in after spotting a
roadside sign for the museum while driving home from Pittsburgh and
listening to a radio report on Glenn. The museum is in the astronaut's
converted boyhood home. Grujoski and her daughter left impressed.
"He was a true American hero, someone who loved his country and served it," she said.
Glenn was known for his humility, said Hal Burlingame, who grew up in New Concord and was friends with Glenn for half a century.
"John
Glenn that you see is the real John Glenn," Burlingame said. "He would
be the same John Glenn if he happened to be sitting here today talking
with us. He never took himself too seriously."
Glenn
was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge and grew up in nearby New Concord.
He wed his childhood sweetheart, Anna Margaret Castor, in 1943. The
couple spent their later years between Washington and Columbus.
He
and his wife served as trustees at their alma mater, Muskingum College,
and he promoted his namesake School of Public Affairs at Ohio State,
which houses his private papers and photographs.
His
long political career, which included a failed 1984 run for the
Democratic presidential nomination, enabled him to return to space in
the shuttle Discovery in 1998, 36 years after going into orbit in
Friendship 7 as part of Mercury, the first U.S. manned spaceflight
program. He turned his Discovery mission into an educational moment
about aging.
Schools, a space center and the Columbus airport are named after him.
"For
generations, Americans cheered John Glenn as he soared into the
heavens," former House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican and fellow
Ohioan, said in a statement. "Now he has taken his place there for
eternity, a well-earned reward for an American life well and heroically
lived."
