Late Gov. Bob Graham to lie in state in Tallahassee –

April 19, 2024

TALLAHASSEE — Former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who died Tuesday night at the age of 87, will lie in state in Tallahassee at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum on April 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Graham’s body will be in a closed casket accompanied by military and state law enforcement honor guards. The public is welcomed to attend in person or watch the ceremony online on The Florida Channel.

Afterward, Graham will have a private burial for family only.

On Saturday, May 11, there will be a public memorial service in Graham’s hometown of Miami Lakes at the Miami Lakes United Church of Christ. The time of the public memorial will be released after his private burial next week, according to a news release shared with the Times/Herald.

At Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order, U.S. and Florida flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on April 26. During a recent news conference, DeSantis said Graham “served this state with honor and integrity and really made a great contribution.”

The family is asking that, in lieu of flowers, well-wishers make a donation to the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. The center’s phone number is 352-273-1080.

Graham was first elected to the governorship in 1978 and held office for eight years. He went on to become a three-term U.S. senator, having first been elected in 1986. He ushered in the state’s era of school competency testing, crafted the foundation for its modern environmental policies and grappled with the mass influx of Cubans fleeing across the Straits of Florida in the early 1980s.

Graham left his fingerprints throughout the state over his more than four decades in Florida politics, during which he became known for his pragmatic, centrist approach. As governor, his 1983 Save Our Everglades restoration program served as the foundation for four decades of state and federal efforts to bring back and preserve the natural flow of the River of Grass.

As a senator, he pushed for greater transparency around the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and earned a reputation as a conscientious objector, becoming one of just 23 U.S. senators to oppose then-President George W. Bush’s request to authorize the use of force preceding the 2003 Iraq war.

And on the stump, his “workdays” — a series of more than 400 campaign events that brought him closer to Floridians by working everyman jobs like garbage-loader, short-order cook and bulletproof-vest maker — created a model for politicians eager to appear blue collar.

“Bob Graham devoted his life to the betterment of the world around him,” his family said in a statement Tuesday night announcing his death. “The memorials to that devotion are everywhere — from the Everglades and other natural treasures he was determined to preserve, to the colleges and universities he championed with his commitment to higher education, to the global understanding he helped to foster through his work with the intelligence community, and so many more.”