American hero-astronaut John Glenn will lie in state in Ohio's capitol building preceding 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 is planned for next week; the dates and times were being worked out yesterday, said Hank Wilson of the John Glenn School 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 the oldest man in space at age 77 in 1998.
A US Marine and combat pilot, he also served as a US senator, representing Ohio, for more than two decades.
President Barack Obama yesterday 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, DC
Tributes from the nation's leaders and others continued yesterday.
"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 Grujoksi, 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, Ohio, 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.
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