Vice President Joe Biden will remember John Glenn in a speech at his funeral, joined by officials from all stages of the former fighter pilot, astronaut, and U.S. senator's remarkable career.
Glenn, who died last week at age 95, will be honored in a memorial service at 2 p.m. Saturday at Ohio State University's Mershon Auditorium. The service is open to the public, and free tickets are available here. Cincinnati.com plans to host a livestream.
Along with Biden, who served in the Senate with Glenn, speakers at the funeral will include NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Ohio State University President Michael Drake, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and retired Gen. Jack Dailey of the U.S. Marines, who directs the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.
Glenn flew 149 combat missions as a Marine pilot in World War II and the Korean War, then became the first American astronaut to orbit Earth. He later served 24 years as a Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio and returned to space at age 77, orbiting Earth 134 times in 1998. That same year, as he was preparing to leave the Senate, he helped create the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Ohio State.
At Glenn's funeral Saturday, Cincinnati banker and hotelier Louis Beck will join Columbus-area developer Jack Kessler in delivering the opening prayer and reading Psalm 23.
Glenn's body will lie in state on Friday in the rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse, which is open to the public from noon to 8 p.m. On Saturday, 40 Marines will escort his body up High Street in Columbus to the auditorium in a procession scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m.
