Oct. 25 (UPI) — Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will speak Friday at a funeral service in Baltimore for late Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings.
The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT.
The 12-term Democratic congressman died Oct. 17 at age 68 due to complications from cancer. He lay in state at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, the first black U.S. lawmaker to receive the honor.
Cummings’ funeral will be held at Baltimore’s New Psalmist Baptist Church, which the congressman attended for almost 40 years.
Obama was asked by Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the late lawmaker’s widow, to speak of “the remarkable life and legacy of one of the country’s finest servants.” The 44th president called Cummings “steely yet compassionate” and “principled yet open to new perspectives.”
Clinton, the 42nd U.S. president, called Cummings “a resounding voice of moral courage who fought the good fights for the people of Baltimore.” Former first lady, New York senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also attend Friday’s service.
Bishop Walter S. Thomas Jr., who has been the church’s pastor since 1975, will deliver a eulogy. He predicted the 4,000-seat church would be packed with mourners.
“For all those who pass through these doors, it has been very somber,” Thomas told The Baltimore Sun. “We’ve lost a friend, a loved one, a member, a role model. You can roll out the whole list of nouns. He steps into all of them with big shoes.”
Wednesday, Cummings lay in repose at Baltimore’s Morgan State University, where he delivered the commencement address in May.
“Your lives are in front of you,” he told the graduating class at the historically black research university. “And so I beg you to go out and stand up for this democracy.”
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