Two for One

If 100 people were asked how many presidents died on the same day, the most likely answer would be none. At forty-five presidents in total, forty of whom have died, spread across a calendar year, the odds are not in favor of two presidents sharing the same date of death. But presidential history is filled with oddities and this topic is no exception. Presidents Harry Truman (1972) and Gerald Ford (2006) died on December 26, thirty-four years apart. (Looking back even further into presidential history, three presidents share July 4 as their date of death: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams (the two died in 1826), and James Monroe (1831); these three will be covered at a later date.) Despite dying on the same day, this is where the similarities end. Truman, having spent nearly eight years in the White House, and having ushered in the end of World War 2, was given a funeral typically not associated for a former president. From start to finish, all aspects of his funeral were held in Independence, Missouri. Originally, Truman had made plans for a large scale national state funeral, beginning in Washington, D.C., and ending in Independence. Several changes were made over the years scaling back the funeral and then, following his death, his wife, Bess, made additional changes further scaling back the funeral services. As typically seen with state funerals, there was no horse-drawn caisson and no lying-in state period. Although Truman did receive a steady stream of visitors who passed by his casket in his museum's lobby, President Nixon and former-president Johnson paid their respects, along with the Honor Guard, 21-gun and 21-artillery gun salute, his funeral was remarkably small given his time in office and all that came with it, ending with his burial in his museum/library courtyard. President Ford, on the other hand, had initially made plans for a scaled-back funeral but at the urging of his family, he changed the plans for a five-day state funeral spread across Rancho Mirage, California, Washington, D,C., and Grand Rapids, Michigan. On December 29, the state funeral began and ended five days later under a late afternoon, winter sky in Grand Rapids. Although he did not have a horse-drawn caisson, he did lie in state in the Capitol and his national funeral service was held in the National Cathedral. His state funeral was a grand affair and was just two days short of matching the lengthy seven-day state funeral held two years earlier for President Reagan. Despite Ford serving 2.5 years in the White House, his funeral was on scale for presidents who serve a full term. So what we're left with is quite simple: time in office has no influence on the size, scale, or scope of a presidential funeral.