Presidential funerals have not always been grand affairs of state. Our earliest leaders were often buried with little more fanfare than the average citizen. Over the years, the rituals connected with the death of an American president have become increasingly elaborate, with regulations for a state funeral - an honor accorded presidents, ex-presidents and presidents-elected if their families request one - outlined in a 138-page document. The first state funeral was for William Henry Harrison, who died just a month after taking office in 1841. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a funeral train carried his body to 14 cities before he was finally buried.

Only nine American presidents have lain in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda: Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, William Howard Taft, John Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Others to have been so honored included Congressman Henry Clay, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and two police officers who were killed in a 1998 attack on the Capitol.

George Washington: Dec. 14, 1799

Washington was apparently healthy until he caught a chill during a freezing rain and died just as the nation was about to celebrate the start of the 1800s. Though he had requested a simple funeral, Congress called for a more elaborate memorial with gun tributes, band music and large contingents of soldiers and Masons. In the famous funeral oration, Henry Lee declared that Washington was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." His mahogany coffin was interred in the family tomb at Mount Vernon, Va.

John Adams: July 4, 1826

In a great coincidence, the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence to become president - Adams and Thomas Jefferson - died on the nation's 50th birthday. Adams was buried beside his wife beneath the Congregational church in Quincy, Mass.

Thomas Jefferson: July 4, 1826

Jefferson was buried, at his request, in a simple graveside service at the family cemetery at Monticello, Va.

James Madison: June 28, 1836

Having refused medication to keep him alive until July 4 (so he could join three other past presidents who'd died on that date), Madison died while eating breakfast and was buried the next day in graveside services at Montpelier, Va.

James Monroe: Died: July 4, 1831

Monroe's funeral at St. Paul's Episcopal Church was preceded by eulogies at New York City Hall. Thousands followed his funeral procession up Broadway to the Marble Cemetery, as church bells tolled and guns from the Battery boomed once for every year of his life. His body was moved in 1858 to the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.

John Quincy Adams: Feb. 23, 1848

Adams was elected to the Congress following his presidency and suffered a stroke in the House chamber, dying two days later. His open coffin was displayed in a House committee room and his funeral conducted in the House chambers. He was buried with his parents, John and Abigail Adams, under the Congregational church in Quincy.

Andrew Jackson: June 8, 1845

Jackson died at home, the Hermitage, in Nashville, and was buried in its garden next to his wife Rachel.

Martin Van Buren: July 24, 1862

Bells remained silent during the funeral at the Dutch Reformed Church in Kinderhook, N.Y. - at Van Buren's request. But a long funeral procession, escorted by the local fire department, accompanied his coffin to the village cemetery where it was buried in the family plot.

William Henry Harrison: April 4, 1841

The first president to die in office, Harrison caught cold during his inaugural address and died a month later. His body lay in state at the Capitol before the nation's first state funeral, on April 7, 1841, with some 10,000 mourners in the procession. Initially buried in Washington, his remains were moved to a grave at his home in North Bend, Ohio.

John Tyler: Jan. 18, 1862

The only president to join the Confederacy, Tyler was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before taking his seat. His open coffin draped in the Confederate flag lay in state at the Confederate Congress in Richmond, before a funeral at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, next to James Monroe.

James K. Polk: June 15, 1849

Polk, thought to have died of cholera contracted during a trip to New Orleans, was buried simply at his home in Nashville. In 1893 he and his wife were moved to a tomb at the state capitol in Nashville.

Zachary Taylor: July 9, 1850

He died in office and lay in state in the East Room of the White House, where his funeral took place. A procession, including his war horse "Old Whitey," accompanied the coffin to the Congressional Burial Ground. Later his remains were moved to his childhood home near Louisville.

Millard Fillmore: March 8, 1874

After suffering two strokes, Fillmore died in Buffalo, where he was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Franklin Pierce: Oct. 8, 1869

Pierce lay in state at the New Hampshire capital before his funeral at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Concord, N.H., where he was buried.

James Buchanan: June 1, 1868

After a simple funeral, Buchanan was buried at Woodward Cemetery near his home in Lancaster, Pa.

Abraham Lincoln: April 15, 1865

Following his assassination at the Ford Theater in Washington, Lincoln's body traveled by train to 14 different cities in a famous funeral procession that lasted two and half weeks. He was buried on May 4 at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.

Andrew Johnson: July 31, 1875

A victim of a cholera epidemic, Johnson requested he be buried wrapped in an American flag with a copy of the Constitution under his head. He lay in state at the Greeneville, Tenn., courthouse before a Masonic funeral and burial on land he owned nearby, marked with a willow tree taken as a shoot from one grown at Napoleon's tomb.

Ulysses S. Grant: July 23, 1885

After dying of throat cancer, Grant lay in state in Albany and New York City, where a million people turned out for his funeral procession to a temporary burial site. In 1897, President William McKinley dedicated the imposing Grant's Tomb overlooking the Hudson River.

Rutherford B. Hayes: Jan. 17, 1893

After a brief funeral at Spiegel Grove, his estate in Fremont, Ohio., Hayes was buried at Oakwood Cemetery. In 1915 he and his wife were moved to a burial site at Spiegel Grove.

James A. Garfield: Sept. 19, 1881

Garfield was shot in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881, by Charles Guiteau, who had chosen his .44 British Bulldog pistol because he thought it would look good in a museum. With a bullet lodged near his pancreas, Garfiled lingered for months before dying at the Jersey Shore, where he had been moved to recuperate. He was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

Chester A. Arthur: Nov. 18, 1886

Arthur died at his home on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, where his funeral took place on Nov. 22 at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. He was buried in a family plot at the Rural Cemetery in Albany.

Benjamin Harrison: March 13, 1901

After lying in state at the Indiana capitol, his funeral took place at the First Presbyterian Church there, with a eulogy from poet James Whitcomb Riley. He was buried next to his first wife at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Grover Cleveland: June 24, 1908

Simple funeral services were held at his home in Princeton, N.J., where he was buried. Grateful to Cleveland for helping settle a dispute with Britain, Venezuela flew its flags at half staff in his honor.

William McKinley: Sept. 14, 1901

Shot on Sept. 6, 1901, following a speech at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, McKinley at first seemed to be doing well. But the wound turned gangrenous and he died just over a week later. He lay in state in Buffalo, Washington and Canton, Ohio, before a funeral and temporary burial in Canton. In 1907 he was moved to the McKinley National Memorial in Canton.

Theodore Roosevelt: Jan. 6, 1919

Roosevelt died from a coronary embolism at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay. His family requested a simple funeral, which was held at the Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay. President Woodrow Wilson was in Paris at the time and did not attend, but former president William Howard Taft, described in one news report as the "picture of grief," was among the dignitaries who struggled to climb the snowy hill to Roosevelt's grave site at Young's Memorial Cemetery in Oyster Bay.

William Howard Taft: March 8, 1930

Taft's funeral at the All Soul's Church in Washington was the first be broadcast over the radio. Prior to the funeral, his body lay in state at the Capitol; he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Woodrow Wilson: Feb. 3, 1924

Wilson's funeral and burial took place at the Washington Cathedral, which was still under construction. He is the only president buried in the nation's capital. (John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft are the only two presidents buried at Arlington National Cemetery.)

Warren G. Harding: Aug. 2, 1923

Harding fell ill while on a cross-country tour and died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. His body was returned to the White House, where his coffin rested in the East Room; he was buried in Marion, Ohio.

Calvin Coolidge: Jan. 5, 1933

Coolidge suffered a heart attack at his home in Northampton, Mass., where his funeral took place at the Edward Congregational Church. He was buried in the family plot in Plymouth, Vt.

Herbert Hoover: Oct. 20, 1964

His Quaker faith called for a simple funeral, which was conducted at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York. His body then lay in state at the U.S. Capitol before burial in West Branch, Iowa, on a hill overlooking the house where he was born.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: April 12, 1945

Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the "Little White House" in Warm Springs, Ga. Following a funeral in the East Room of the White House, he was buried in Hyde Park, NY.

Harry S. Truman: Dec. 26, 1972

After years of failing health, Truman died at a hospital in Kansas City, Mo. His funeral was held at the Truman Library in Independence, where he is buried in a courtyard.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: March 28, 1969

He survived a heart attack in office, but suffered several more after leaving office before dying of congestive heart failure. He was buried in his uniform in an Army coffin near his boyhood home in Abilene, Kan.

John F. Kennedy: Nov. 22, 1963

Following his assassination in Dallas, his body was returned to Washington, D.C., where it lay in state at the Capital with an estimated 250,000 mourners paying their respects. The funeral mass at St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church was followed by burial at Arlington National Cemetery, where his widow Jacqueline lit an eternal flame at his grave.

Lyndon B. Johnson: Jan. 22, 1973

Johnson suffered a heart attack at his ranch in Texas and died on the way to the hospital. He lay in state at the Johnson library in Austin and at the Capitol. Following a funeral at the National City Christian Church in Washington, he was buried in the family plot near Johnson City, Texas, with graveside services conducted by the Rev. Billy Graham and Anita Bryant singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Richard M. Nixon: April 22, 1994

At the request of his family, there was no state funeral for Nixon, who died of a stroke in New York City. The quiet service and burial at the Nixon library and birthplace in Yorba Linda, Calif., was presided over by the Rev. Billy Graham and attended by President Bill Clinton and all four living former presidents - George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

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