The Nation - News from June 4, 1989

Hundreds of Miami residents lined up to pay their last respects to Rep. Claude Pepper (D-Fla.), the champion of the elderly who died Tuesday of complications from stomach cancer. He was the nation’s oldest congressman. Some churches brought busloads of mourners to Miami’s Central Baptist Church Saturday, the third of five days the public will be allowed to view Pepper’s body. Thursday and Friday, the body lay in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. It later was taken to Pepper’s home district in South Florida. Memorial services were scheduled today in Miami. The body will then be flown to Tallahassee to lie in the Rotunda of the old state Capitol Building. He will be buried in Tallahassee’s Oakdale Cemetery on Monday. Pepper’s public service began in the Florida Legislature in 1928. After leaving the Legislature, he served 14 years in the U.S. Senate and 27 years in the House.