Family, friends and employees paid last respects Tuesday to Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
His casket was carried into Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington, Va., by a military honor guard, and a line formed for the late morning service. A single red rose, a spray of white ones and the twang of a bluegrass banjo were in the midst as mourners gathered inside a church.
The 92-year-old Byrd, who died last week, was buried later in the day at Columbia Gardens Cemetery, which is near Arlington National Cemetery, next to his late wife Erma.
Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who served half a century in the U.S. Senate, died at a hospital in Fairfax, Va. Tuesday's service and burial were the culmination of a week of memorials that included his time lying in repose in his beloved Senate and a memorial in West Virginia's capital of Charleston.
Thousands in West Virginia paid their respects at a public viewing in the West Virginia statehouse, where President Barack Obama attended a memorial service.
Family and staff members said that Tuesday's service, in contrast to the earlier tributes, focused on Robert C. Byrd away from the Senate -- the husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who played the fiddle and loved his dog.
