Crowds of people gathered at the West Virginia state capitol on Friday, July 2, to celebrate the life of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd. A line of people waiting to go through security and enter the seating area stretched from a gate near the West Wing through the grounds of the capitol and past the veteran’s memorial.
The variety of people in attendance was a testimonial to the amount of people who revered Sen. Byrd as a positive impact on West Virginia. “The crowd was very diverse to say the least. All ages and races were present which was a nice thing to see,” said Crystal Myers, a junior at Marshall University.

Some people came to pay their respects, others to thank the senator for all that he had done for them. “He got me my first job in West Virginia. He did everything for West Virginia. I wanted to take my granddaughter to see this because we’ll never have another politician in West Virginia that have the heart and emotion that he did for the people of West Virginia,” said Mary Maynard of Huntington, W.Va.

Although it was a hot day, the crowd was not restless. Most people sat through the entire ceremony from the processional to the recessional. “The memorial was one fit for royalty, there won’t be much I’ll forget about the entire day,” Myers said. They listened as President Bill Clinton told stories of knowing Byrd in his early political days. They cheered as President Barack Obama took the stage and read a eulogy comparing Byrd to “a soaring eagle.” Some even cried as Vice President Joe Biden told a story about Sen. Byrd’s generosity. As several dignitaries rose to the stage and told the audience their fond memories of Byrd, people celebrated the life of a man who gave so much to West Virginia. “I think I found it pretty crazy that a man that a lot of us considered to be something of a West Virginian brother was so close to people like that,” said Justin Sprawling, a senior at Marshall University.

A consensus became apparent throughout the memorial that neither politician nor resident of West Virginia could think of anyone that would be able to replace Sen. Byrd. “It’s going to be difficult to find a replacement that is half of the man that he was,” Spradling said.

As the memorial service came to a close, “Country Roads” by John Denver began to play and attendees began to sing along, singing to Byrd who had come home to West Virginia.