Mourning the Magnificent Yankee: The Funeral of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Authors

Todd C. Peppers, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

Funerals of Supreme Court Justices are now complicated and highly choreographed affairs. Lying in repose in the Great Hall at the Supreme Court. Funeral services in the grand Washington National Cathedral. Eulogies from fellow Justices, former law clerks, and prominent legal figures. Live coverage by national television networks. But for one of the greatest jurists to sit on the Supreme Court, a simple Unitarian service and the rites accorded an old soldier sufficed.

Recommended Citation

Todd C. Peppers, Mourning the Magnificent Yankee: The Funeral of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 41/42 Sup. Ct. Hist. Soc'y Q. No. 4 & 1 at 4 (2019).