WASHINGTON — Bob Dole will be laid to rest in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, Feb. 2, according to a statement from the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.
Dole, who died Dec. 5 at age 98, was wounded in World War II, served nearly 36 years in Congress and was GOP Senate leader for more than a decade. In February 2021, he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
Dole was in state at the United States Capitol as President Biden and others gathered to honor an “American giant” who served the country in war and in politics.
He was honored Dec. 10 during a service at the National Cathedral in Washington as a senator capable of practicing partisan politics with his bare hands without losing civility and as a patriot whose courage overcame serious battle wounds. during the Second World War in Italy in 1945.
Another tribute to Dole followed at the World War II Memorial in Washington – a monument to Dole’s generation which he worked to have built. Among the speakers was actor Tom Hanks.
Dole’s coffin was then airlifted to Salina and transported west to his childhood hometown of Russell for a service at St. Mary Queen of Angels Catholic Church.
Then a final service was held in the state capitol, Topeka, where Dole briefly served in the Kansas House in the 1950s. The list of speakers was bipartisan, including Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and the two Republican senators Americans from Kansas, Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report
