From who takes the oath of office to the speed of the funeral procession, tradition dictates what happens when a president dies
Flags fly at half-staff
When a current or former U.S. president dies, all government buildings, public schools, offices and military bases must lower their flags to half-staff for 30 days. President Dwight D. Eisenhower standardized this practice in 1954, though lowering flags goes back to earlier naval traditions. The sitting president is also expected to issue an official announcement of the death, as well as authorize the closure of federal buildings, agencies and departments to observe a national day of mourning.
The last time this somber occasion happened was when 39th president Jimmy Carter died on Dec. 29, 2024.
The casket will be transported to the Capitol
Most former presidents return to their home states after leaving office, so what happens if the president dies when he or she is back home? If the family wishes, the president may lie in state at the U.S. Capitol after his or her death, so the body will be transferred to Washington, D.C., so that the country can pay its respects.
That was the case with President Carter, who spent two-and-a-half days lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta before his casket was flown to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, aboard Special Air Mission 39. Carter’s remains were then transferred with ceremony to a hearse, brought to the U.S. Navy Memorial and transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for a funeral procession to the U.S. Capitol.
The president’s family coordinates the funeral
Even though new presidents plan their own funerals almost as soon as they take office, it is the president’s family who ultimately puts the finishing touches on the proceedings. For example, widowed first lady Jacqueline Kennedy modeled John F. Kennedy’s 1963 funeral after Abraham Lincoln’s, while Gerald Ford’s family honored his wishes to be taken to the Capitol by motorcade instead of horse-drawn caisson.
“They can choose to have a simple funeral; they can choose to have a full honor funeral,” Barbara Owens, state funeral planner for the Joint Task Force–National Capital Region, told the Associated Press. “It simply is up to the family.”
Portraits are draped in black
Before President William H. Harrison died in 1841, just 30 days after his inauguration, we didn’t have a standard protocol for what happens when the president dies. The subsequent 30-day mourning rituals, which were based on state funerals from around the world, have set the precedent for presidential funerals ever since.
One enduring tradition is the use of crepe or other mourning material to cover the presidential portrait. In Harrison’s time, the entire White House was draped in black, and many official buildings and private residences followed suit. Today, we’re more likely to see draped portraits, as in the above image of Gerald Ford, who died in 2006. Likewise, when Jimmy Carter died, his portrait in the Georgia State Capitol was draped in black ahead of his funeral.
The president’s casket may lie in state
It has become customary (though it is not required) for a sitting or former president’s casket to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda for several days. This allows the public, including other elected officials as well as current and past presidents, to pay their respects. The military maintains a guard of honor.
President Lincoln, who was assassinated in 1865, was the first president to lie in state in the Rotunda. Above, former Senator Bob Dole paid tribute to President George H.W. Bush’s casket as it lay in state there in 2018. A few presidents, including Franklin Roosevelt, William H. Harrison and Zachary Taylor, have instead had their presidential funerals and viewings at the White House.
Mourners attend a multiday funeral
Both private and public services are held over a several-day span of events to pay tribute to a deceased president. Presidential funerals are traditionally five-day affairs, but that’s not always the case. For example, Reagan had a seven-day funeral (seen above), and Carter’s lasted six days. There is a private service, reserved for grieving family members and friends, and a national funeral that includes attendees from around the world.
The national service is almost always held at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and can shut down the nation’s capital for days. As for the funeral’s actual arrangements, “the ornateness and symbolism will vary with the president’s popularity and political coalition,” says Sanders.
Funeral planners create a seating chart
It’s no secret that presidential funerals are far from simple, easygoing affairs. Instead, each detail is meticulously planned—all the way down to where the funeral attendees must sit. These decisions follow official protocol handed down by the State Department and were first established in 1908 during the Roosevelt administration.
The presidential party comes first, followed by chiefs of state (arranged alphabetically by the English spelling of their countries). Royalty attending as representatives of their chiefs of state come next, then heads of governments and other officials. At President Carter’s funeral in 2025, all five living presidents attended with their spouses: Donald Trump and Melania Trump, Joe Biden and Jill Biden, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, George W. Bush and Laura Bush, and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
The funeral procession marches through D.C.
Before a presidential casket heads to its final resting place, it might travel down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., one last time. Some presidents have requested their casket be carried by a traditional horse-drawn carriage, while others, like Ford, have preferred to use a modern motorcade. Above, President Kennedy is carried down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1963, and the most recent president to take the trip was President Carter in January 2025.
But there is one thing that all processions have in common: They must move at exactly 20 miles per hour to make sure the day’s events stay on schedule.
The U.S. military gives a final salute
As former commanders-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, presidents are entitled to receive full military honors at their funerals. Tradition calls for their caskets to be draped with an American flag and carried on the shoulders of a nine-person team. Seven honor guards form a rifle party and fire a three-volley salute over the gravesite, a custom that dates back to Roman times, and military forts around the country hold 21-gun salutes. Starting at noon, a gun is fired every minute for 21 minutes.
Later, at the lowering of the flag, a 50-gun salute of 50 rounds shot at 5-second intervals symbolizes the 50 U.S. states. And there may be additional ways that the military pays tribute to a former president. For example, the U.S. Navy conducted a “missing man formation” flyover of Carter’s Georgia residence to honor the president’s naval service.
The president is buried at a personal site
Presidents often choose to be buried in a place that holds personal significance to them or their families, such as their hometown residence or even a public monument. Presidents John F. Kennedy and William H. Taft are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, while Reagan, George H.W. Bush and FDR are buried on the grounds of their presidential libraries. Carter was buried beside his wife, Rosalynn, at the Carter family home in Plains, Georgia.
Above, in 1946, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pays his respects at Roosevelt’s gravesite in Hyde Park, New York, alongside FDR’s widow, Eleanor Roosevelt.
The vice president must take the oath of office
The final thing to know about what happens when the president dies is that the vice president must take over ASAP. The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of a functioning democracy, so when a sitting president unexpectedly dies, visibly passing power to the VP is “the most urgent task to be accomplished,” according to Purdy. “While the vice president automatically becomes president upon the death of the president, [taking the oath of office] telegraphs to the nation and world the official recognition that there is a new president,” Purdy says.
The last time a president died in office was 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became president (shown above). If the VP cannot take the oath, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, followed by the president pro tempore of the Senate, are next in line, according to the Presidential Succession Act.
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Sources:
- Elizabeth Sanders, professor of American politics at Cornell University; interviewed
- Mike Purdy, presidential historian and author of Presidential Friendships: How They Changed History; interviewed
- Augusta Chronicle. “Jimmy Carter’s portrait is draped in black at the Georgia State Capitol”
- White House Historical Association: “A Presidential Funeral”
- White House Historical Association: “Presidential and State Funerals”
- Washington National Cathedral: “Presidential Funerals”
- Senate.gov: “Presidential Succession Act”
- The American Presidency Project: “Proclamation 3044—Display of the Flag of the United States of America at Half-Staff Upon the Death of Certain Officials and Former”
- Fox News: “The Death of a President: Traditions and Rituals of State Funerals”
- WDSU: “Jimmy Carter’s 6-day state funeral continues in Georgia”
- State Department: “The Order of Precedence of the United States of America February 2022”
- NBC News: “State funerals bound by rules, history, judgment”
