Mark Manuel

Mark Manuel

Mark Manuel can be heard in the Quad Cities on 101-3 KISS-FM and BIG 106.5, as well as in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids on 100.7 The Fox. Thanks for...Full Bio

 

My Experience With The Lincoln Catafalque

As our country mourns the loss of George H. W. Bush, you’ll be hearing a LOT about the Lincoln Catafalque. That’s the black-draped table that Bush’s coffin is set on while he lies in state at the U.S. Capitol. When I was working in the Washington, D.C., market in the early 90s, a college friend from Western Illinois University was doing her internship with one of the Illinois senators or congressmen. She was able to give me a REALLY cool tour of the capitol building. I was able to go into the Vice President’s wing (this wasn’t allowed for the general public after a bomb scare a few years earlier). I was ALSO allowed to go into the basement...underneath the rotunda. There was a large storage room down there...and very close to the entrance to that room was a large black table with a black velvet-looking blanket sitting on it. “What’s that?” I asked. She explained that it was the table that Abraham Lincoln was  displayed on while lying in state after being assasinated. It was literally three feet away from me. I thought to myself, “Wow...there’s a lot of history there.” LIttle did I realize that the wadded up...maybe it was folded, but not very neatly...velvet-looking blanket was part of it.  The Lincoln Catafalque. The structure that is now holding Bush #41 as we mourn his loss. And I got to see it up close and personal...in storage...in the basement of the capitol. RIP George H. W. Bush...


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