>> i thought about politics and government work sometime, but i have no idea that i would be up to do that myself. i had been thinking about this since i was a kid. being able to contribute and orbital flight, and if i was to continue in that area, we would do the best for the country. that's right a to run for public office. the depth of everything in this country.

>> when john glenn was 10 years old, his father, his hero, a taught of world war i him how to play caps on the bugle. next to gravesites and gravestones of the fallen, john will recall that time and feeling when he said where love of country was a given, defensive ideals is an obligation, and the opportunity is ain in this operation challenge not only to fulfill a sacred duty, but to join a joyous adventure. years in, all the worked with him was always a joyous adventure. joyous adventure you and john had together, on display for your children and the whole

world to see. you all know it, you can tell when a couple genuinely loves and enjoys one another. on behalf of president obama and behalf of the american people, we are here because we love you and we love john. together you taught us how to love. that is not something you usually talk about when you talk especially heroes like john glenn, who lived a with justwas rigorous a little bit of magic. we talk about poise under pressure, mental and physical toughness, but for all his willsm the history remember in war and space and

public life, you felt something deeper with john. way to get to air force two, kerry. call from john some are over the atlantic on the way to another mission in the middle east. and he told me about his time that he got to spend with you a couple of days ago and the family. said -- only the ninth in history. he said he talked about how much it meant to him and to be with you. and he gained spontaneously what i think is the best description of john glenn, and i knew john for over four years. he said john came out of the

heart of the country like you kids do, and he stole america's heart. the heart of the country and stole america's heart. and he did. he stole america's heart. u.n. john and jill and i have been friends for 40 years. the senate together side-by-side for 20 years and we traveled around the world together. john was one of the happiest people i knew. he had that infectious smile. john would walk in my office or walk in a caucus with a big

smile on his face. i would wonder where the hell has he been? is not here what i just heard? the world knew and respected john from columbus to cambodia to washington to beijing. senator, heng a loved his constituents and his colleagues. you can feel his love for his .ountry and his state are especially, he felt and his you grandchildren. do was see john and andy walked together.

that is what it was supposed to be like. i said that the day we -- i said it is different. everyone knows i love jill more than she loves me. i think you loved him just as much. the last time we were together when jill and i had and he and john over to the vice presidents residence, i was looking at the picture this morning. we were walking out to the gate. and the words of the poet christopher marlowe came to mind and i had to rewrite this on the way to the plane. christopher marlowe said, come with me and be my love and all

the pleasures we shall prove. together, you and john proved all the pleasures. you not only had a magical love affair, the other thing about you, you were partners. you the weight and responsibility with enormous humility. toense of duty that defined as the greatest of america's greatest generation. i think john defined what it meant to be american, what we were about. just by how he acted. it was always about promise. aboute a country

possibilities, opportunity, always a belief in tomorrow. when john was in the house a couple of years ago he said what are we going to do tomorrow? we have all these opportunities. together you taught us that a good life is built not on a single historic act or multiple acts of heroism, but the , theands little things thousand little things that build character. treating everyone with dignity and respect. we would go in the restroom where the shoeshine guy, john would always pat him on the shoulder and give him a hug. understanding that despite fame, everybody was john's equal. everybody was john's equal in his mind.

and it all comes down to being personal. i can even try to improve on tip o'neill's -- about how all politics is local. i don't think john would agree with that. i think he thought all politics is personal. it is all personal. down to being personnel, to being there for in thatand being there being there for friends. u.n. john were there for me and jill. when i was in the hospital you are there for us when our son deployed and you were there when we buried him. it is all about being personal. u.n. john, as was mentioned

i happened to be with ethel kennedy at an awards ceremony in new york and the andle hope ceremony, ironically a fellow who runs my office who was an ohio guy said john wasn't doing well. i had a brief discussion with ethel. known about well him talking to the kids and being sent back to hickory hill. what struck me was i was told that when you went john got to hickory hill john walked into senator kennedy's private study. kennedy had robert of poetry.

was opened up in the leaf of the book and margins, comments made by robert kennedy. and the passage until john remembered was, this time like all times is a very good one. if we know what to do with it. the thing i like most about john is he knew from his upbringing that ordinary americans could do extraordinary things. he believed, i believed he was that every successive generation would know what to do with it.

that is the charge i think john .eft us it join our nation's conquests and operations as a challenge to not only fulfill a sacred duty, but to join in this joyous adventure. so when the marine plays taps on the bugle at arlington for our friend, we can look deep into the heavens and no with ,ertitude that john believed and was right, that future generations of americans will also look deep within the heavens and understand how to explore, how to serve, how to love. they will come to understand they're looking for a message to send about our time here on

earth, about what it means to be an american. glenn, the life of john and that is not hyperbole. god bless you john, god bless you any, and may god attacked our troops. ♪ ["america the beautiful"]

o beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain! america! america! god shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. ♪ ♪ o beautiful for pilgrim feet

-- o beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife. who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life. america, america, may god thy gold refine. till all success be nobleness and every gain divine. ♪ >> this is a reading from the gospel of mark.

one of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seen that jesus answered them well he asked them, which commandment is the first of all? jesus answered the first is hero is real, the lord our god, the lord is one, you shall love the lord your god with all your heart. with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. as shall love your neighbor you love yourself. there is no greater commandment than these. >> whatever is true, whatever is

honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is excellence and anything worthy of praise, think about these things. doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. and the god of peace will be with you. [applause] ♪

>> going back to concorde and what i experience myself there is some of what i try to pass on now to our school here. how do you inspire citizenship? of do you get a feeling pride and community and state and country to where they are willing to go out and engage in political activity? those are the kinds of things i hope we can instill in people not only here in ohio but maybe across the country. ♪

>> this is quite a crowd. to all of you who came here today, thank you so very much. it means a lot to our family. ready to were not yet say goodbye to him. his mind was sharp as attack but his body was failing him. i'm going to speak about my father from the perspective of being his son, but i have a huge amount of difficulty deciding what to say about him. i just decided to go with the things i am going to tell

you about today. i'm going to start by talking about his memories, and then i will share some of my memories for him. i can't really say for sure what made him what he was, but he was born in a happy home with two parents who love to deeply. and he grew up in a classic where he could adventure and explore to his heart's content. there is a terrific community spirit there. focused around church and school and town activities. and he told us lots of stories about his friends and my mother. in particular he never forgot the effect of the great depression in new concorde. late one night he overheard his parents talking about how they

were going to lose their home if the wouldn't make any more payments on their mortgage. new public fdr's works programs helped my father struggling plumbing business get off the ground. and that saved their home. in that business as a teenager measuring and cutting pipes. proud of being a really good pipe cutter. government tofor do good was something that he never forgot. not an abstract concept, this is real life. here are more memories from the early period of his life that he sure -- that he shared with us many times. as a little kid he loaded some rhubarb from the rhubarb patch and went door-to-door making some extra money. he did the same thing with horseradish. he had a paper route and he

a dishwasher at a summer camp and he played trumpet in the town band. poetry andher loved she had him learn poems that he could recite by heart to the end of his life and he wrote some of his own poems. all of these stories he told us now feel like gifts that he left us. things i remember about my life with my father. he loved science. kid i remember him drawing -- bear with me a bit. our member him drawing diagrams explaining how the shape of an airplane swing would create lift. this had to do with something called -- and the space program was a huge passion.

was a teenager he's been a lot of time before his mercury flight going through all his manuals with me and explaining all the backup systems that were hopefully going to keep him went wrong.ething he also learned how to identify lots of stars, and he taught that to us when we were kids. in the yard at night with a blanket. back in my middle 20's 1970 one, an interesting time. i went to visit my parents, hadn't seen them for a while area hair was down to my shoulders -- while. .air was down to my shoulders bell bottoms, the whole bit. i hadn't seen him for a while. i walked into the house and i remember she might have blinked twice or his face twitched or something of that sort. but that was it.

and he was only five or six years retired from being a colonel in the marine corps. he must have made some wisecracks at the time, but it is clear he accepted me as i was. he really gave me freedom to learn myay in life, to lessons and make my own mistakes. he loved being outdoors, especially in the colorado rockies. he loved taking his jeep up crummy backroads and bouncing around for hours. the rest of us found that a little less enjoyable. once i was with him on a backpack trip in wyoming, sitting by a glassy smooth camerness lake and along trumpeters longs -- trumpeter

swans. this is a golden memory that i have growing up with him. he was a lifelong jogger. when that was too hard on his knees he would go for daily walks. lastd that up until these two months, often walking back and forth in their condo when he had become too weak. he loved to ski. the last time he skied he was about 85. he was with my wife and i, and he made the best turns i had ever seen him make and i was never able to figure that out. but he aggravated some arthritis in his knees and he had to give it up. when of our most beloved family traditions over the last 40 years was together together in

the mountains at christmas time. we would bundle up, adults, grandkids, and dogs, get a permit from the forest service, -- thrive out and find a christmas tree. we would follow careful instructions about creating little chimneys for the flames to follow. pretty soon we would have a roaring fire. we would heat up the baked beans and roast up marshmallows. sometimes it wasn't much above zero, but he loved those times. some other things he really liked, having a barbecue pit. because cooking steaks over charcoal was one of his specialties. medium rare is the way he liked it. corn on the cob dripping with

butter, catch up, his flavor of choice on virtually everything. with his great tenor boys come always ready to harmonize. teaching my sons to drive his riding mower. reading absolutely everything. roundtables. he felt they brought everyone into the conversation. watching westerns with his grandkids, and he had a special week miss for chipmunks and hummingbirds. he entered my mom loved to travel. when he was 92 and mom was 93 they decided to go on a huge road trip. all we knew was they were heading west. a few days after they started this trip they called to say

were sittingd they in their car, which had been loaded up onto a flat head aaa truck, because they had a flat tire and their spare tire was defective. car were beingir transported 25 miles away, but it turns out they were somewhere in the texas panhandle, and it was 105, 106 degrees. they were sitting in their car on top of this flatbed truck with the engine running so they could have the air-conditioning running the whole time and not roast themselves. and they were all excited about this adventure. they continued on, this is 2013, not that long ago. later on they call up again and just finished a two mile hike at the national park using their walking sticks. this is right at the end of the summer.

at the end of this trip they called up again from some little town in colorado where they were sitting in a restaurant and there was a freak thunderstorm going on that had caused a flash flood and water was coming under the front door of the restaurant. no end of adventure. they love that trip. i can go on indefinitely with my memories of him. what struck me as most important is not just how he cared about the people in his life, his family and friends, but people in general. he was enormously considerate. he loved and cared for other people and they sent that love back to him. he treated everyone, cabdrivers to presidents, with the same respect and interest. of all the experiences in his life, nothing was more important to him than having in in a band people who are like

of marine corps, more afraid failing their comrades than they were of losing their own lives. with his first mission in world war ii, as jack daly told us earlier tonight, and then again over the years, he lost a group of friends. some in combat, some in accidents, and he never entirely got over those losses. i will finish with one more recent memory. my wife and i were visiting our parents back in october. we had just finished eating dinner with them. we were all talking and somehow got on the subject to neil armstrong, the astronaut, and that was remembering being at

neil's 80th birthday. he describes neil sitting down a that party and playing september song on the piano. and then sitting at the table with us back in october 18, my father began to quietly sing and he sang that whole song to us because we happen to be sitting there with him. it felt like he was really singing this to everybody in his life that we cared about -- that he cared about. though it is a long long while from may to december, when the days grow short and you reach september, when the autumn weather turns leaves to flame, one hasn't got time for the waiting game. days whittle down to the precious few, september, november.

these precious days i will spend with you. these precious days i will spend with you. >> like my brother said, we are so grateful all of you are here. when we were planning this time for our father, one thing we wanted was there to be friends. people who didn't know dad, but the people who really knew him. i hope you are able to hear that

, thatent drake, charlie these people are our friends and had known dad at different parts of his life. and someone had been mentioned a couple of times and i would be ourss if i didn't say this, lives were intertwined with a wonderful family. ethel and robert wanted to come today, it was a tremendous, it had tremendous meaning for us. you, thank you.

those memories are beyond heart ache and joy. thank you so much for dad and mother. i would also be remiss if i didn't think -- i'm certainly not going to list them. about nine days ago. and the period from his death to today, there have been a group of people who have come together with unbelievable love, strength, support, and energy to celebrate him. they kw him well and they absolutely made this day possible, this time possible. when we were going to the funeral home to see dad's body, i knew i wanted to write something to put into the casket. and i started writing my letter to him.

realized that i was actually writing what i wanted to say to all of you. so this is a letter, this is the letter that i started, so you will hear me refer to him as my father. many people have mentioned february 20, 1962. this, people to have come up to me and said, what a life. john glenn is a hero. what is that like to have a hero for a father? and for the very first time i and ii thought about it said he is just my dad. you have been my teacher, my [laughter]s

singing partner, you tender, me tenor, meyou melody. and slide a car on ice. memorize myded i social security number. and i learned from you westerns are a high form of entertainment . when you and mother married, you i can't promise you much, but i can promise life won't be boring. life with dad was never boring.

[no audio] >> we lost the signal from the memorial service for former senator and astronaut john glenn, taking place at ohio state university in columbus ohio. we will be back shortly and continue our live coverage.

again unfortunately we lost the signal from columbus, ohio, the ohio state university, where the memorial service is taking place this hour for john glenn, the former u.s. senator and former astronaut. we do plan to bring you the memorial service tonight at 8:00 eastern time as part of our prime time schedule here on c-span. donald trump continues his victory tour today with a stop in mobile, alabama. this is one of several such rallies. the president that several such rallies the president-elect has scheduled. incoming from the trump administration, this morning donald trump of notes in

his choice to leave the office of management and budget, selecting congressman mick mulvaney for the post. has served on the financial services committee and the oversight and government reform committee. some reaction to that announcement earlier today, this from nancy pelosi, the democratic leader in the house saying the federal budget is a statement of national values. consistently voted to destroy the medicare guarantee and the ryan budget's. president elect trump has picked a ringleader to hold the full faith and credit of the united states hostage. meanwhile house speaker paul ryan tweeting his support for the announcement that is thentative mulvaney right choice to lead the office of management and budget. you can watch c-span for all the

confirmation hearings, including representative mulvaney's nomination as the trump administration takes shape. we have gotten the signal back from columbus, ohio, the memorial service for john glenn continues, so our live coverage continues on c-span. ask the person to wait, they did, and you signed the autograph on the way back to the office. another simple gesture was to pick up guys as you walked across the capitol grounds the way to and from your office. bowlut the buckeyes in a visitorsing room so could take a piece of ohio home with them.

and you never let your name to be used to make money because you said you were a government employee and it wouldn't be right to make money from government service. however general mills offered you $1 million and we were told it may come off to $5 million to be on a wheaties box. us was an unimaginable amount of money for our family, living on a marine pilots pay, even with flight pay. you turned the offer down. you remained true to your small-town nature, and your heart remained true to the values of the marine corps. dad, you chose a marine issued

casket, like the one most marines asked for. and listed marie to carry you to your grave. after at cote is played at your burial, he wants revelry after echo taps is played at your burial, you want revelry to be played. earlier i said you were a teacher, and you taught me more than just trying to tie a knot or memorizing my social security number. during the life you shared with mother, you were supportive of her, especially with her stuttering. when mother gave her very first

speech, you didn't go with her. you listened on the phone and cried. to stand aloned and not on your shadow. and you are an elder in our presbyterian church. think i learned more about religious practice, watching how you lived your life. you treated other people as you wanted to be treated. you are true to your word with a handshake, you gave to the salvation army, and lived with humility and gratitude. once i asked for your insight and guidance when i thought i had a good idea for an investment. after we talked for a while much thought and said, how

is enough? in today's world your words almost seem quaint. but they should be a standard, how much is enough? are more self educated buyer natural curiosity than any degree might have the stowed. and google and safari gave room for your imagination and curious nature to explore the universe. i learned from you age is not just a number. that aging can be full and meaningful. the glenn institute became the glenn school and is now the glenn college. i am so grateful you lived to know your legacy of public service and meaningful policy will enter. endure.

-- until you are 19. to confirm your skills as a pilot he took a flight physical every year and completed a long testing,f training and provided by the aircraft. but macular degeneration caught up with you and one of the saddest consequences of the it compromised your ability to see sunsets. it was heartbreaking for you and a heart ache for me. now here we are, your funeral. folks from around the world in all walks of life remember and honor you. lives in london

life, with honesty, grace, and belief in our country and the honor of public service. i am proud and so grateful to say you are my dad. thank you dad, i love you, god speed. [applause] ♪ >> we have been together -- in junior high school our parents -- from then on it was the two of us together.

there were things that i thought were important and she thought were important for the country. we have been in this as a team together.

>> by any measure accomplishment, surveys, courage, john glenn was a great man. when i think of john glenn i think of a good man. first taste of john glenn the good man was on march 4, 1968 at ohio.dison theater in 15 teenage boys had gathered for our eagle scout dinner. colonel glenn was the speaker. glenn, national hero, shook hands with each one of us. john glenn was perhaps the most famous man of his generation. he took a picture with us one at a time. he always made time for you no matter your station in life. that lesson has stuck with me. 39 years later, former senator john glenn walked me down the center aisle of the united states senate to be sworn in.

like the eagle scouts of four decades earlier, all the new senators wanted to meet their american hero. -- to kind to senators, that she was kind to senators -- he was kind to senators too. i watched the retire senator -- retired senator reconnect with senator kerry in 2000 four, with senator biden in 2008. i saw him for the first time meet the young senator from illinois and the immediate connection that the american icon and the future presidents made. this was a decade after his retirement from the senate. john glenn got off the bus,

which jumped over the ditch, and spoke -- and shook the outstretched hand of an appreciative farmer. boarded an older winnebago, with the ohio democratic ticket to campaign through small towns in world -- in rural ohio. the rest of us began to get car sick. of course not the 85-year-old astronaut, who simply smiled at us. and i saw the elder statesman as he got off the bus and spoke to one of adoring crowd after another, transferring some of his magic to us. democrat,n fdr roosevelt saved america after all. opportunity for people with less privilege than

most of us in this room have. as dave talks about, he never forgot the terror that struck his 10 or 11-year-old heart when he overheard his parents saying their home was about before closed upon. it was a new deal government backed fha loan that allowed john's father to renegotiate with the bank and keep his family and their home. john knew that government can change people's lives for the better. ofe say john's brand patriotic optimism is a throwback to a bygone era, but we need it now more than ever. in an active citizenship. cynicism andt apathy were a threat. robert kennedy, who helped convince him to run for the senate, said politics was a

calling almost like the ministry. the happiest and most fulfilled people i have known, he told us, we're so -- were those that devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound in their self interest paid that drove john and his activism. glennve him to create the institute, to inspire the next generation of active engaged citizens. a friend who worked for john 30 years ago in his senate office glenne this week john took such joy in helping others and was so proud of his staff, even when you left you were still family. was the only ohio in ever to be elected four times the united states senate. he was a workhorse, never a show horse. he labored over the details of nonproliferation and and

environmental cleanup of nuclear disposal sites. content to spend his time not on collecting instant headlines, but achieving lasting results that would leave the foundbetter than he had it. he helped create the independent watchdogs as we know it to keep the government he believed in accountable to the people it serves. found the foresight who the great lakes task force, which continues to play such an important role to protect the health of our great lake. the night before the 50th anniversary of colonel glenn's space launch, connie and i had john andth andy and david and karen. as the evening wound down, we headed to the door together, the valet pulled up with john's cadillac. hoppedyear-old astronaut in the driver's.

any in the front seat, and the kids all on the other side of 60. some things just never change. you know how they were in love, and he and john. i called them on their 75th wedding anniversary. she told me they waited to get married after john had finished his flight training. we wanted to get married in high school, and he said. wouldn't let us because they said it would never last. john had a way of making everyone around him feel important, from the teenage eagle scouts to the farmers in the field. matthew 25, life by where jesus admonished his followers. did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me. great man, john

glenn, such a good man. >> he is still handy that way. four years ago john and annie entered the hotel suite we election night and were immediately swept with awestruck admirers. i had never known them to be anything but gracious with strangers. i have been on the receiving end of a steady stream of stories about random encounters with annie.d andy -- john and on that night in 2012, our

four-year-old grandson was with us. of the dayt much rehearsing a question he wanted to ask john. told johned him and i clayton had something on his mind. leans in so hen can talk face-to-face with our little boy. question," john said. hesitate, "how do astronauts go to the bathroom in space?" us in earshot gathered around for astronaut john onnn's 10 minute tutorial the machinations of urination and space. clayton thanked him and show his hand and started making the rounds to share his new expertise.

i hugged john and i thanked him for treating clayton with such respect. "well, why wouldn't i? have such sincere questions, and they deserve sincere answers." one of the first things clayton said to me when we visited him was, i'm sorry you lost your friend grandma. he was my friend too. last week we learned that our beloved friend was dying. forget theer kindness you showed us. austin, i had just landed in texas. i reminded john of that conversation he had without grandson and i told him i lost count of the number of times i share that story as an

illustration of what we gain when we engage with civility. icon john glenn can take the time to treat a child with such respect, surely we can find ways to listen to one another. one of my most enduring memories of john as a friend and mentor -- when his opponent called him a liar, he pressed his hands on my shoulders to keep me in my seat. he said, not now. time,as a man of his never was that more obvious to me than when he encouraged me to keep writing and sharing my opinion. i once joked with a john and

annie that i had flunked political training. annie grabbed one of my hands and john grabbed the other.